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They're saying ...
Dale Kreitner is a former banker and present planner and fruit grower from Bainbridge Township in Berrien County.
Bob Walton, an alfalfa farmer and horse breeder, owns Walton Farms in Rosebush in Isabella County.
Linda Minarik is a cash crop farmer from Flushing in Genesse County.
Participants of the sixth Ultimate Farmland Preservation Tour spoke with Michigan Farm News about what they learned about preserving farmland, and what they'll bring back home.
Bob Walton, alfalfa farmer and horse breeder, owner of Walton Farms in Rosebush, Isabella County
"Farmland is what this country was built on, and we have to save it. So many times, if you try to solve the problem just with zoning, it's all restrictions with nothing going back to the farmer. The programs we've seen will help them continue to farm by giving them financial means to protect their farms. I think perhaps both Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) and Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) would work in our area, but I don't know which program will be attractive enough to sell. It's important to build coalitions and work with conservation and hunting groups, but for the general public, I think the most important thing is to educate people. We can do that by giving farm tours to school kids and things like that. Once the kids and teachers get involved, it tends to go home with the kids."
Dale Kreitner, former banker, present planner and fruit grower, Bainbridge Township, Berrien County
"The importance of farmland preservation in Michigan hit home as the tour reached Maryland and New Jersey, where population levels have made farmland preservation critical, not simply desirable. We don't have their kind of pressure yet, but when it hits, it's Katie-bar-the-door. Our area, according to the latest census reports I've seen, has grown nine percent in the last 10 years, and that's already taken out the marginal land that was too wet or too steep. Today, it's the prime farmland that's under pressure, and that's driving us now to do something."
Linda Minarik, cash crop farmer, Flushing, Genesee County
"If we don't start doing something now, we won't have farmland. In Flushing Township, we talk about agriculture, but we haven't set up areas designated for agriculture. Where I live, there are already houses on frontages, and we don't have large blocks of preserved farmland, but we have a lot of areas where transfers of development rights could go. Purchase of development rights could work, too, but we have to get the county to recognize that there's a need for it. That's an area where I could show them how it works after being on the tour, and seeing what works. This tour fired me up, and I think I'd like to stay in contact with the people who took it a year ago. They have the depth of information and the details we'll need to really use this stuff we learned. We should have started this 20 years ago."
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