After Utah lost 20% of its farmland, the state’s Department of Agriculture and Food wants to set $12 million toward a measure that blocks farmers from selling out to developers.

The Department of Agriculture and Food is pushing to expand conservation easements, the process in which farmers are paid to give up specific development rights from their land’s deeds. While the lands are still privately owned, owners give up the right to sell their land, keeping it from being developed into subdivisions and used for mining extraction or other types of intensive development.

The department’s request has set off some tension among Utah officials. While most agree the decline in farms is a problem, there is a divide on how to address it. 

Republican state Rep. Scott Chew is unsure about addressing the problem with more regulations.

“We need to proceed cautiously, and we need to look a little bit more broad-minded and try to come up with a Utah solution rather than jumping on the federal bandwagon,” Chew said on Wednesday. 

Utah receives $5 million to $6 million in federal funds annually for conservation easements. But the problem continues to grow. Between 2017 and 2022, Utah saw a loss of over 1,000 farms, a 5.6% decline. Roughly 2.7 million acres of Utah farmland have disappeared since the 1960s, according to Terry Camp, public policy vice president for the Utah Farm Bureau. 

Camp and Utah Department of Agriculture and Food Land Conservation Program Manager Jeremy Christensen believes additional funding is the way to handle the problem. Christensen said Utah could unlock millions more in conservation easement funds if aside the $12 million in funding to match federal investment. 

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Christensen and Camp agree more control over development is needed as Utah’s population swells. 

They said conservation easements are the answer to shrinking farmland. “We don’t oppose all development, but we want smart development,” Camp said.