Hartford Business Journal

10 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 6, 2026 Seth Bahler, CEO of The Modern Milkman, a home milk delivery service, and a member of the family that operates Oakridge Dairy in Ellington, stands in front of a company delivery truck. HBJ Photo | Steve Laschever At Risk Connecticut farmland shrinks amid economic pressures, rising developer interest to deny a landowner to do that," he said. "But we do have carrots in our tools." The primary tools include the traditional Connecticut Farmland Preservation Program (FPP), the Community Farms Preser- vation Program (CFPP) and the federal Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP). Under the first two programs, the state buys the development rights from a farmer and places a perma- nent deed restriction on the land so it can only be used for agricultural purposes. The FPP is for parcels of 30 acres or more, while the CFPP is for smaller farms. Under the ACEP, farmers are paid for a conservation easement, which restricts the land to being used only for agricultural purposes. Since the inception of the state's farmland preservation program in 1978, 51,347 acres across 458 farm parcels have been protected as of mid-March, the state Department of Agriculture said. In 2025, the department, along with federal and local partners, protected 13 farm parcels covering 953 acres. Hurlburt said the process has histor- ically moved slowly. "When I came into this office (in March 2019)," he said, "I think they had done one Community Farms program closing in its 10 years." Unlike developers, "who can move at the speed of business in real time," Hurlburt added, "we move at the speed of state government." On average, it once took about six years to close on a farmland pres- ervation application, though recent changes have reduced that timeline to between three and four years, depending on complexity, he said. Even with those improvements, the timeline can be too long for farmers looking to retire. In response, lawmakers created a $10 million farm- land access grant program that allows municipalities, regional councils of government and nonprofit land conser- vation groups to purchase farmland and secure its preservation. Those buyers can then sell the development rights to the state and transfer the land to a farmer who will keep it in agricultural use. At risk Despite the state's best efforts, the number of farms and total farmland in Connecticut continues to decline. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of farms in the state fell by nearly 1,000 over a 10-year period ending in 2022. The department's most recent Census of Agriculture, which is released every five years, reported 5,058 farms in Connecticut in 2022, down 919 from 2012. Farmland also declined by 65,525 acres, or nearly 15%, over that period. Those losses carry economic implications. The census report estimates that, in 2022, Connecti- cut's agriculture industry contributed between $3.3 billion and $4 billion to the state economy. By David Krechevsky davidk@hartfordbusiness.com A n e-commerce distribution facility. A hotel. Residential housing. Solar arrays. Devel- opers in Connecticut do not lack ideas for reusing former farmland. In the past several months, devel- opers have proposed a number of projects on agricultural land, including: • In November, a developer in Sims- bury proposed a 120-room Holiday Inn Express as part of a mixed-use development on 164 acres on Hopmeadow Street. • In December, developers in Cheshire proposed a 25-lot residential subdi- vision on 42 acres that formerly was the site of Norton Brothers Fruit Farm. The town approved it in February. • In March, a developer in Wallingford proposed converting a farm house and barn into nine apartment units at 386 Williams Road. Other projects have been completed in the past several years, including Amazon's five-story fulfillment center in Windsor on 147 acres owned by the former broad-leaf tobacco-growing Thrall family, and the Gravel Pit Solar array, the state's largest, on former farmland in East Windsor. All of these projects come as Connecticut farmers face growing financial pressures from rising costs for land, property taxes, energy and equipment, along with, in some cases, a lack of interest from younger generations in continuing the family business. The state has programs offering financial incentives to preserve farm- land, but they often are not as lucrative as a developer's bid to buy the land. One example: Real estate developer Mark Greenberg recently sold 35 acres of former farmland in Windsor for $350,000 per acre for industrial development. The land had been used to grow broadleaf tobacco, which he said "is not an economically viable business anymore." Citing the increasing cost of prop- erty taxes, Greenberg said farmers sell because they can "turn something that's a liability into a big asset. That's what I've done." Farmers and state officials, however, say they prefer to preserve the land for farming. Preservation efforts Bryan Hurlburt, commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture, said competing with developers has been a struggle for decades. "We don't have a stick that says 'you can't do this,' or want the ability Bryan Hurlburt SHRINKING CT FARMLAND A glance at the number of farms and the amount of farmland (in acres) in the state: Note: Survey is done every five years. Source: Census of Agriculture, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. NUMBER OF FARMS FA R M L A N D 2002 2007 2012 2017 2022 4,191 4,916 5,977 5,521 5,058 350K 400K 450K 300K

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