Georgia is losing farmland fast. Is a state fund enough?

Georgia Farmland – Georgia lawmakers have set aside $2 million for the first year of a new Farmland Conservation Fund, created to help owners protect working land with purchase of development rights and conservation easements. For farmers like Russ Moon, the question is urgent:

On a family farm outside Athens, Georgia, irrigation hums along a field planted with corn, soybeans, strawberries—and the steadier work of raising cattle. It’s the kind of routine Russ Moon has watched his family hold for generations. Four generations, about 100 years, in his telling.

Moon says the pressure around him has been changing. More housing and development have come to the area over time. The University of Georgia in Athens pulls people toward the region, and the rural setting makes it feel attainable. In that environment, he’s seen other farms sell. And he’s worried that if the development rush keeps rolling, it will reshape the community beyond recognition.

Georgia’s new Farmland Conservation Fund is arriving as that pressure builds. The legislature has allotted $2 million for the first year. Across the state. farm landowners can apply to use that money to protect their land from development—whether that means housing. warehouses. data centers. or other uses. Applicants will find out in August if they’ve been selected.

The state’s approach is built around a familiar tool: purchase of agricultural conservation easements. Programs of this type exist in some 30 states, though the funding levels vary widely. Texas allocates $2 million annually. Florida set aside $300 million in 2022 and $100 million in 2024.

Georgia’s law was passed in 2023. It was modeled after these initiatives, and it established a formal program to coordinate federal, state, and local match funding. It also created an advisory council to review and approve proposals. The legislature passed the initial round of funding in 2024, and the first round of applications closed May 20.

Easements work by separating what a property owner can do from what the land could become. Landowners can sell the future development rights of their land to an organization—like a land trust. An appraisal process determines the value of those development rights. Then the farmer and the easement holder negotiate the terms of their agreement.

In return, the landowner receives an upfront payment. Half comes from the state funds. The rest is match funding, which could come from a land trust, local government, or the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA allocates $450 million annually to match dollars in state conservation programs.

After a deal, the landowner can continue farming—growing and harvesting timber, or using the land in the ways they already do. They can even sell the land later, with one key restriction: they can’t sell to a developer who would turn it into housing, a strip mall, or an industrial site.

For Moon, the appeal of conservation is simple. “Selling the land is really not an option,” he said of his own plans. “I intend on remaining in agriculture for as long as possible.” He added that he’d only sell if forced to. but he also acknowledged how fragile farming can be. shaped by weather. changing crop prices. and global markets.

“There may be a day where they have to sell, but I don’t want the land to be developed,” Moon said. “That’s my desire, that’s my family’s desire.”

He’s not starting from scratch. Some of his land is already in a conservation easement. He entered into it directly with a land trust in 2019.

Georgia’s new conservation fund aims to make deals like that easier to pursue statewide by providing state funding for these purchases of development rights.

Katherine Moore, president of the Georgia Conservancy, which advocated for the new state fund, called it a critical step. She described the program as unprecedented for Georgia. “It is unprecedented for Georgia to have such a program. ” she said. adding that it can feel “a little wild” given that agribusiness is Georgia’s number one economic engine.

Moore also framed the urgency in terms of money and temptation. She said the fund offers “a compelling alternative” for farmers facing financial crunches and offers that can feel relentless. Those offers vary widely depending on location, development plans, and other factors.

Pricing for what land becomes after transition is one indicator of why the offers can be hard to resist. A report by Saunders Land. a real estate brokerage and management firm. found that prices in the sale of transitional land—property changing from one use to another—ranged from just over $6. 000 to more than $260. 000 per acre in 2025. Conservation easements can carry very different values, too, for similar reasons. And typically. Moore’s concern sits alongside a major tradeoff: a landowner would typically receive less money for an easement than in an outright sale because they are selling rights. not the land itself.

Moon understands that math, even if he wants to avoid it. He described the community change that happens when farmland gets sold out from under the people who work it. “Once you develop a piece of property. you’re never going to — it’s never going to go back. ” he said. “You lose farmland, it’s gone forever.”.

That fear isn’t only about livelihoods and identity. Georgia’s scale of potential loss is part of what makes lawmakers’ decisions feel heavy.

The state could lose some 800,000 acres of farmland by 2040, according to the Georgia Department of Agriculture. Tyler Harper. the state agriculture commissioner. put it in plain terms: “That means 10 percent of our farmland will be gone in the next 15 years or so. And that’s a staggering statistic.”.

The implications reach beyond food production and jobs. Converting farmland to other uses can increase greenhouse gas emissions, the American Farmland Trust has said. Topsoil often has to be removed to pave land, releasing carbon stored in soil. Low-density residential development and industrial operations can also produce more emissions than farming.

Conservation easements, the American Farmland Trust notes, can encourage farming and management practices that sequester more carbon. They often also protect non-agricultural land adjacent to fields—woods and wetlands among them.

Georgia’s leaders often promote the state’s booming economy. with an emphasis on Georgia being the number one place to do business. Moon’s response is wary, because he sees a tension that won’t go away. “The whole time we keep being the number one place to do business. we’re hurting our number one industry. ” he said.

For him, the key issue is irreversible time. If development takes hold, the landscape changes in a way policy can’t easily reverse.

Moore and other supporters see the conservation fund as a tool to slow that shift—before it becomes permanent. Moon hopes that getting more farmland into conservation can help maintain some balance before it’s too late. The first year of funding begins with $2 million set aside by the Georgia legislature. with applications that closed May 20 and selections expected in August.

Until those decisions are made, the stakes stay close to the ground—on farms where irrigation runs, crops grow, and families plan years ahead, even while they watch the offers arrive.

Georgia Farmland Conservation Fund conservation easements purchase of development rights farmland loss agricultural conservation Tyler Harper Katherine Moore Russ Moon Madison County land trusts U.S. Department of Agriculture match funding