As Western Washington consumers grow more interested in eating locally-grown food, farmers are getting priced out of the land market.
Leann Krainick's dairy cows don't notice any difference in taste on the Enumclaw pasture where they graze, but its value is skyrocketing as prime land for development. The third-generation farm is facing a fight for its future.
"It's more expensive as time goes on and we want to do things right. God gave us this great land and we want to make sure it stays like this," Krainick said. "Usually the first place people want to build buildings is in the middle of farmland. As farmers, that makes it more expensive for us to buy our property."
Krainick says the price of her product can barely match property taxes and wages today, much less tomorrow. As consumers grow more interested in local food, local farmers are aging out while younger ones can't afford to start.
The average age of the King County farmer is 58-years-old.
"The scary part is that only 2% of the farmers in King County are under 35. So, when I'm ready to retire, I'm 48, who's going to grow my food locally? I like my food produced locally. I want to know where it's coming from. I don't like to have our food imported. That's really going to be the only option," Krainick said. "The piece I'm standing on right now with our dairy cattle is not preserved and it could be purchased and built on. We'd lose that ground for pasture. We'd lose that ground for hay."
Krainick is helping King County figure out how to add 25 new farmers per year, along with 400 new farmland acres every year.
The new plan is to use farmland protection easements, which will keep the land zoned as agricultural, reducing its market but preserving its affordability.
"But it would have to stay in agriculture and producing food whether it be cattle or crops or food for cattle such as hay," Krainick said.
It's part of a bigger push to permanently protect 65,000 acres of greenspace in King County by purchasing easements for working land, as well as buying greenspace for public use.
King County Executive Dow Constantine is proposing the county council raise the debt limit for the Conservation Futures Tax from 50% to 80%. It would bring about $150 million forward in the next 2-4 years by selling municipal bonds.
"There's a lot more work that can be done that needs to be done that landowners want to do and I think it's important we keep the ball rolling," Krainick said.
