The Howard County Sierra
Club supports the Dayton Rural Preservation Society in their campaign to
establish zoning regulations that preserve agricultural land for agriculture
and prevent industrial operations and other inappropriate use of agricultural
land.
The Sierra Club is
opposed to industrial use of farmland. The national Sierra Club's policies are
quoted below.
http://www.sierraclub.org/policy/conservation/agriculture.aspx
Land
Use: Two trends are of
intense concern: the loss of productive agricultural land to urban, industrial,
and mining development and the conversion of marginal lands and underdeveloped
areas to agricultural use.
- In general, land should not be
converted from those agricultural uses which protect long-term resource
productivity.
- In areas not now in agricultural use, land-use
classifications and policies should be developed and implemented before
conversion is permitted.
- Those seeking to convert land to other uses
should bear the burden of proving that the proposed new use is more important
to current and future public welfare and that there is no other feasible
location for the proposed use.
- Comprehensive land-use planning is necessary to ensure a balance of lands for all
purposes. It is important that there be wide public and professional
participation in the planning processand that farmers, ranchers, and other
agricultural professionals participate in land-use decisions.
- Zoning and land-division policy and practice
should be restructured to serve as a substantive control over conversion of
agricultural lands.
- Tax policy, to the extent that it encourages
conversion of agricultural land, must be reformed. Examples include adoption of
differential assessment and tax deferral techniques, restructuring of estate
and inheritance taxes to promote continuity of family farming, and elimination
of tax shelters.
- The concept that "highest and best
use" of land and water resources is that which can pay the highest
immediate price must be modified to reflect the long-term goal of preserving
agricultural productivity and natural resources.
- Soil erosion control should be focused on
prevention of the problem at its source. Special attention should be given to
restoration of formerly productive eroded lands.
- In general, smaller, more diverse production
units such as family farms, to the degree that they result in increased
environmental responsibility, are preferable to the extensive monoculture
characteristics of larger units.