Lancaster County, USA - Halt rising land costs. Lower farm taxes.
Keep non-farming neighbors and government regulations from making farming harder.
And stop speeders on rural roads.
Otherwise, Plain Sect farmers’ days in Lancaster County may be numbered.
That’s what about 10 Amish and Mennonite farmers told the county’s Blue Ribbon Commission for Agriculture on Friday at an Amish home in Warwick Township.
“If the picture doesn’t change, I don’t think Lancaster County Amish are going to be here very long,’’ an Amish farmer said. “Some people don’t see no future here.’’
The Plain Sect farmers asked to not be identified by name.
About eight of the ag commission’s 50 voting members attended the meeting, as well as County Commissioner Chairman Dick Schellenberger, state Rep. Roy Baldwin and Warwick Township officials.
It was the first of 10 ag commission meetings scheduled around the county over the next four weeks.
Farmers cited rising land costs as a main reason some are leaving, or considering leaving, the Warwick area and county in general.
Plain Sect parents seek to buy or subdivide farms for each of their sons so they can raise their families on farms.
Rising land costs are making that extremely difficult, the farmers said, forcing more and more of them to seek work in non-farming occupations.
Farmers and ag commission members agreed there seems to be no end in sight to rising land costs. Appraisers can’t even keep up, they said.
“If you have two guys that want it, they’ll appraise it,’’ one farmer quipped.
Jim Adams, of Wenger’s Feed Mill Inc., asked the Amish why they don’t refuse to sell their farms to developers or non-farmers, and instead sell only to other farmers.
“It seems hypocritical to me,’’ Adams said. “They care about farming coming in, but they don’t care when they sell the farm.’’
An Amish man replied that “you have to have a huge pot of money’’ to move and buy a farm in another state.
The county’s fertile soils, climate and long growing season are uncommon elsewhere.
It might take twice as many acres in another state to produce the same crop yield as here, one farmer said, and that additional acreage costs money.
The larger farms present another problem. Farmers that use only horses to pull their equipment often can not “farm fast enough’’ to plant the extra acreage quickly enough.
The farmers gathered said Amish would prefer to stay in the county if it’s possible in the future.
Another hindrance to that goal is non-farm neighbors, the farmers said.
One thought about having his farm permanently preserved, but he said he was afraid that if an adjoining property were developed, the new neighbors could make his property undesirable to farm in the future.
The farmers said neighbors complain about odor, manure on roads, and they dump garbage on farmers’ fields.
“You go to mow hay and there are kids’ toys, brush cuttings, grass clippings,’’ a farmer said.
“Whether you like it or not, Lancaster County is changing,’’ Baldwin said. “More and more people do not understand farming. We need to find out how we can get together and educate people moving in who don’t know the way of life.’’
Warwick Township Manager Dan Zimmerman said one practice that is helping is requiring developers to put a copy of the Right to Farm Act in the deeds of homes they are selling near the agricultural district.
The Plain Sect farmers said they are also hassled by local government when they try to build a second house or erect a trailer on their farm for a family member, at the same time a developer can put up 50 or more homes in a year.
The farmers said they also do not always know all the levels of approval they need for a certain building project, and when they do, the process takes too long.
Traffic and the speed of cars are making rural roads unsafe for Plain Sect members, the farmers added.
Cars go up to 20 miles faster than speed limits with little worry of getting caught, an Amish man said.
Zimmerman said Warwick Township Police have to patrol 90 miles of roads and spend most of their time on high-volume roads like Routes 772 and 501.
But he said police could perhaps increase rural patrols during peak planting and harvest times in the spring and fall.