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Sociology of Agriculture and Food (SAFRIG)

Farmland Protection Policy: the “Idaho Way” Gwénaëlle d’Aumale*, Gwénaëlle d’Aumale, Rebecca Som Castellano, Jen Schneider,

Farmers and ranchers are an aging population, facing increasingly unpredictable climate, elevated input costs, highly volatile markets, escalating debt loads and numerous other stressors which challenge the viability of farm operations. These pressures have been extensively documented within agrifood systems literature. However, an underexplored pressure is land use change, whereby agricultural lands are permanently lost to development. Land use policy and farmland protection tools can help farmers improve  sustainability and viability in their agricultural operations, in part by removing development pressures and preventing land use conflicts. In Idaho, a historically robust agricultural state, in-migration, demographic restructuring and rising land values have generated competition for different land uses where farmlands are being permanently converted to residential and commercial uses. At the same time Idaho has historically had few policy tools in place to protect agricultural land from development and its attendant consequences. Recently an agricultural protection act was passed by the Idaho State Legislature. While limited in its potential impact, the passing of this legislation marks an important shift. Therefore, the objective of this presentation is to examine the policy and decision-making processes shaping mechanisms supporting farmland retention in Idaho, with an emphasis on the role that institutionalized ideas play in policy making. Specifically, we ask (1) What socio-political constraints have historically prevented farmland protection policy from existing in Idaho?; (2) What shifts occurred in the policy environment that led to policy change?; and (3) How did the legacy of these sociopolitical constraints shape the policy outcome of farmland protection policy in Idaho? To answer these questions we utilize qualitative data collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with policy experts and agricultural producers across the Snake River Plain of Idaho. We shed light on the factors that have recently shaped land use policy change in Idaho, underlining the role ideas play in policy making and in shaping agrifood system problems and solutions. This research contributes to agrifood literature by using a policy-making lens to understand how tools for agricultural viability may be limited by ideational and political dynamics. In practice, it aims to inform future efforts of policy-making on farmland loss.