Between 2017 and 2022, Henderson County, in western North Carolina, lost about 8,000 acres of farmland, nearly 20% of its total, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture.
That figure amounts to a loss of 4.5 acres a day during that period alone. And when new data becomes available, the losses are expected to keep rising. It reflects the spread of development: Many of those properties, where apples and vegetables were once harvested, now have homes, businesses and roads.
Henderson County’s situation is not unique. North Carolina has the second-highest projected loss of farmland in the country and could lose 1.1 million acres by 2040, according to a report by American Farmland Trust.
In Henderson, pressure increased during the pandemic with the arrival of people working remotely, and after Hurricane Helene, when many families decided to sell their land, explained Angela Price, farmland preservation coordinator for the county’s Soil and Water Conservation District.
“It’s deteriorating rapidly, not just because more people are coming, but because everything is getting more expensive,” Price told this news outlet. “Especially after the storm, people want to accept the loss and move on.”
On Nov. 3, county voters will decide whether to approve a bond of up to $25 million to pay property owners who voluntarily agree to keep their land from being developed, forever.
“Once you put down asphalt, once you put down concrete, once the building is there, that land is taken out of production and you most likely won’t get it back,” Jason Davis, owner of North River Farms in Mills River and one of the farmers supporting the bond, told Enlace Latino NC.
An economic decision
“I’ve been to areas where you go down a road and there’s an entire subdivision of homes, and in the middle there’s just one farm left, where all of that used to be farmland,” Price said. That farm’s owner, she added, was the only one who refused to sell.
Between 2017 and 2022, the number of farms in the county rose 14%, but their average size fell 30%, according to the census. Price attributes this to two trends. Out of necessity or under pressure from developers, families that have worked large tracts of land for generations began selling parts of their properties, subdividing the land. And new buyers are purchasing small lots to grow crops.
To describe those families, Price uses a common expression in Appalachia: land rich, cash poor. Many inherited properties that a grandfather or great-grandfather bought decades ago. “If they tried to buy the land they live on today, they could never afford it,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Davis sees it from the farmer’s perspective. “For a farmer, their wealth is in their land. It’s their 401(k), their retirement,” he said. “It may be the college fund for their grandchildren.” When no one in the family wants to keep farming, selling to someone who will build on the land pays the most.
What voters will decide Nov. 3 and how much it would cost taxpayers
Faced with that loss, the county is turning to a bond that voters will approve or reject Nov. 3. Supporters argue that protecting farmland also protects the county’s cultural identity and its economy. Agriculture accounts for more than 20% of that economy, according to Price.
In practice, voting for the bond means voting for a loan. If the yes vote wins, the county will be able to borrow up to $25 million and repay it over about 20 years through property tax revenue.
According to the county’s disclosure statement, interest would total about $14 million. The tax would increase by up to 1.01 cents per $100 of assessed value: That means about $40.40 a year for a $400,000 home, for example.
The money would go to the county’s existing preservation program.
“It would provide the financial resources needed to have a much greater impact on farmland preservation in the county,” Jeff Chandler, executive director of Agribusiness Henderson County, an organization that promotes local agriculture, and co-chair of the campaign supporting the bond, told Enlace Latino NC.
The ballot does not refer only to farms. It also includes the preservation of forests and open space.
If the no vote wins, the county will not be able to use this debt, although it could seek other funding. The most visible opposition comes from the Asheville Tea Party, a conservative political group urging voters to vote no. On its website, it argues that the bond is “the result of our commissioners’ mismanagement of uncontrolled construction and development in Henderson County.”
Early voting in the county ends Saturday, Oct. 31, at 3 p.m. On Nov. 3, assigned polling places will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. You can find locations and hours in this Enlace Latino NC guide.
How the county’s preservation program works
The farmland preservation program, established in Chapter 45 of the county’s code of ordinances, is based on agricultural conservation easements.
Someone who buys land also buys the right to develop it, Price explained. An easement, in contrast, is a legal agreement in which the owner permanently gives up that right in exchange for a payment from the county. The land’s permanent agricultural use is recorded in the property deed.
“It’s an exchange of compensation for those development rights,” she said.
How is the amount determined? The payment is the difference between the land’s market value and its value solely for agriculture. The owner keeps the land and decides what to plant. Even if the land is sold in the future, the restriction remains in effect.
The program currently has just over $1 million. It began accepting applications in May and approved its first two easements in July. Davis is already placing his grandparents’ farm in Buncombe County under an easement and plans to do the same with part of his land in Mills River.
What the loss of farmland means for workers
The program’s money goes only to property owners. But in Henderson, the people who plant and harvest are largely migrant farmworkers, some with permanent residency and others with temporary H-2A visas.
“The Latino community is an integral and critical part of Henderson County’s agricultural production engine,” Chandler said. Thirty-six percent of farms hire workers, according to the census.
“Without our farmworkers, we couldn’t grow crops,” said Davis, who warned that finding them, even with H-2A visas, is becoming increasingly difficult. For Chandler, the bond protects those jobs. “The ultimate in farmland preservation, I think, is farm profitability,” he said.
“Farmland preservation means nothing if it doesn’t intersect with the entire community and leaves the invisible worker behind,” Price said. With fertilizer and diesel becoming more expensive, she added, “we could pay workers more if it weren’t so expensive to pay for everything else.”
Delia Jovel is the founder of Tierra Fértil, an agricultural cooperative made up of Latin American immigrants. For her, preserving land “means leaving a something that provides security for food production, security also for the work of people who dedicate themselves to agriculture,” she told Enlace Latino NC.
Few Latino property owners and access to land
The 2022 census recorded 19 farms in the county with at least one Hispanic producer, on 795 acres, without indicating whether the land was owned or leased. So far, no Latino property owner has applied for an easement, according to Price.
Jovel’s cooperative grew crops in Hendersonville on borrowed land that Hurricane Helene flooded. After a two-year search, it bought its own land in Leicester, in Buncombe County.
People who lease or do not own land receive no direct payment. Chandler argues that it could still open a door for them because a farm under an easement drops in price. “Let’s say it’s $10,000 an acre,” he said. “With development rights, it could be $50,000, $75,000 or $100,000 an acre.” The decision to sell or lease would remain with the owner.
What the bond does not resolve
Davis acknowledges that it is not for everyone. “This bond is one tool in the toolbox,” he said. “It’s going to work for some property owners, and for others it may not.”
Price, who as a county employee cannot comment on the bond, believes growth cannot be stopped but can be managed. For her, the goal is to make agriculture profitable so families do not feel that selling is their only way out. Easements, she said, “are just one piece of the puzzle.”
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