About 2,000 acres of farmland are lost or compromised every day in the United States to development. Conservation easements can protect it in perpetuity, but their cost and the loss of value, of up to 65%, hold many producers back.
In the United States, at least 50 million acres of Midwest farmland will change hands before the end of the decade, partly because of the aging of farmers and landowners. At the same time, about 2,000 acres of farmland are lost or compromised every day to the advance of development, according to American Farmland Trust, a national land preservation organization. Faced with that pressure, a growing number of agricultural advocates are promoting a legal tool to ensure the land remains farmable: the conservation easement, or agricultural easement.
Dan Kuebler grew fruits and vegetables on 30 acres in Ashland, Missouri, and for decades sold his produce at the Columbia Farmers Market. As small towns in southern Boone County became home to those working in nearby Columbia and Jefferson City, he watched the farms along his rural road get sold and broken up. "I don't want it split up into five-acre plots ... and become a development. That's sacrilege," he said.
Kuebler worked with a local land trust to attach a conservation or agricultural easement to his property deed, which dictates that the land must remain farmland no matter who owns it — forever. "You cannot subdivide it, you cannot sell it off for residential or commercial development. That is the guiding principle," explained Nick Shapiro, executive director of the Greenbelt Land Trust of Mid-Missouri, the organization Kuebler worked with.
According to American Farmland Trust, another 18.4 million acres — an area almost the size of South Carolina — will be converted by 2040. The pressures come from urban sprawl, as metropolitan areas spread outward and pave over once-rural places, but also from low-density residential development: housing built in the countryside on large lots of former farmland repurposed nearly 7 million acres between 2001 and 2016. That phenomenon is especially pronounced in Tennessee, where 148,000 acres of farmland were converted to urban and highly developed use between 2001 and 2016.
Josh Wright, of American Farmland Trust, helps landowners through the process, often years long, of securing an easement. "People who have spent their entire lives working their land ... become so attached to it, and all their effort could be snatched up and paved over as soon as they sell the property," he said. However, imposing development restrictions on a piece of land can reduce its value by up to 65%, depending on factors such as location, nearby development pressures and how restrictive the easement is. "Unfortunately, it's probably considered the worst use," Wright said of farming, measured against the highest and best use standard.
Twelve years ago, Congress expanded federal easement initiatives and set aside about $450 million a year to compensate landowners for a portion of the reduced value of their land through the ACEP-ALE program (Agricultural Conservation Easement Program – Agricultural Land Easements). That funding, since increased to $650 million annually after President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is channeled through nonprofit organizations, state and local agencies or tribal governments to essentially buy the property's development rights.
More than 1 million acres of farmland have been preserved through easements since the federal program began in 2014, but more than half of that area is concentrated in three states: Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. Currently, Tennessee has 422 acres of farmland under permanent ACEP-ALE easements; Illinois, 445 acres; and Iowa, 2,320 acres. No farmland in Missouri has been restricted from development under the federal program.
Eric Gramlich, of Ozark Land Trust, an organization focused on preserving land in Arkansas and Missouri, explained that there still are not that many land trust organizations in Missouri and that the agricultural community is still learning about the option. Although the government can offer a financial cushion to soften the drop in value, he acknowledged that it is hardly the most profitable option. "Even those payments would struggle to keep up with the demand and the price of land for commercial development or large-scale subdivision," he said.
In Tennessee, the General Assembly passed the Farmland Preservation Act in 2025, setting aside $25 million in grants for farmland and forest landowners who place their land in conservation easements. The resulting program, Preserving Land for Agriculture Now, began accepting applications in September. The Land Trust for Tennessee and TennGreen Land Conservancy, organizations that serve as easement holders, said in January they had received overwhelming interest in the state grants.
However, preserving land through easements takes time, while losing it to development can happen quickly. A few years ago, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the agency that administers the program, made an effort to "streamline" multiple parts of the process, including appraisals, surveys and the certification of organizations such as land trusts.
On the north side of Kansas City, Kansas, Rick Mareske has grown berries and practiced forest farming on 40 acres for the past 20 years, selling to local customers through a community supported agriculture (CSA) program. He and his wife are weighing options for the future of their business and their land, and they considered an easement. "The cons are that it's expensive," he said. "It's like $20,000 or $25,000 just to do it, and then you lose money." Mareske's land is a financial asset he is counting on for his retirement income, and he said he cannot afford to sell for less.
Meanwhile, Kuebler estimates that placing an easement on his land cost him about $20,000, most of it for the survey and appraisal. He did not take advantage of the federal ACEP-ALE program or its compensation offer, even though his 30 acres of fields, woods and pasture lost about $90,000 in value once development rights were stripped. He sold the land to another local farmer last year; the easement requires that the land remain in agriculture and that farming methods be sustainable or regenerative. There is a small, old cabin on the property, and one of the more unusual stipulations of the easement is that Kuebler may spend time there, and on the land, until his death. "I really couldn't give up the farm entirely because I am so attached to it," he said.
