VICE PRESIDENT GORE ANNOUNCES $17.2 MILLION FOR FARMLAND PRESERVATION
                                               Release No.  0356.98
                                        Roger Salazar (202) 720-4623
                                               roger.salazar@usda.gov
                                           Dave White (202) 720-3210
                                                 dave.white@usda.gov

VICE PRESIDENT GORE ANNOUNCES $17.2 MILLION FOR FARMLAND PRESERVATION

 WASHINGTON,  Sept. 2, 1998--Vice President Al Gore today announced that the
U.S. Department of Agriculture will provide $17.2 million to 19 states, that when
coupled with their own funds, will be used to purchase development rights and keep
productive farmland in use.  These new federal, state, and local partnerships will
ensure the preservation of thousands of acres of our Nation's most vulnerable
farmland for generations to come.

  "On my family's farm in Carthage, I learned a simple truth: if you lose an
acre of fertile farmland, you lose it forever," Vice President Gore said in a major
policy address at the Brookings Institution on ways to create more livable
communities. "This investment will protect more than 53,000 acres of precious
farmland on 217 farms across America.  Our kids will see horses, cows, and farms
outside, not just in books and movies."

 The $17.2 million from USDA's Farmland Protection Program will be leveraged
with state and local funds so that approximately $105 million will be available to
protect the Nation's best farmland.  Total funding for the Farmland Protection
Program, established in the 1996 Farm Bill, is $35 million over six years.  All
available funds through this program have now been obligated.

 "Much of America's farmland is near major cities,"said U.S. Agriculture
Secretary Dan Glickman. "And as our cities continue to grow into neighboring rural
areas, our farms are in danger of becoming subdivisions or shopping malls.  We
can't sit back and take our best farms -- and the food they supply for our families
-- for granted."

 Each year since the 1996 Farm Bill was adopted, USDA has asked for proposals
from states, tribes, and local governments where this program could be used with
existing programs to help acquire conservation easements or other interests in land
with prime, unique, or other productive soil to limit nonagricultural uses of that
land.

 Under this program, USDA enters into agreements with states, tribes, and
local governments to support their efforts to protect farmland through the purchase
of easements.  USDA provides up to 50 percent of the costs of purchasing these
easements.  

 To participate, landowners agree to limit the use of their land for
nonagricultural purposes and have pending offers for acquisition of agricultural
conservation easements from state, tribal, or local entities.

 Farmland must meet the following criteria in order to qualify: It must be
part of a pending offer from a state, tribe, or local farmland protection program;
be privately owned; have a conservation plan; be large enough to sustain
agricultural production; be accessible to markets for what the land produces and
have adequate infrastructure and agricultural support services; and have
surrounding parcels of land that can support long-term agricultural production. 

 Proposals from the following states were selected: California, Colorado,
Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,
Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

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