The Council was a founding member and organizer of a multi-interest statewide coalition of over 60 organizations formed to educate the public and state policy makers about the need to preserve farmland. Known as the Working Lands Alliance, the coalition's success has been raising public awareness leading to introduction of state legislation to significantly increase funding and streamline the State's purchase of development rights program.

Role of the Council
As a result of the Council's long history of working with agriculture and land-planning groups, the Council was asked to serve on a small steering committee to develop farmland preservation strategies. The executive director and representatives of groups that are Council partners served on the committee from its outset.

Council staff and Council member activities included:

• Recruiting additional partners
• Developing the public information campaign
• Fund raising to pay staff
• Disseminating information through our web page and mailings to Council members
• Organized and hosted the first statewide public information forum about the Working Lands Alliance.
• Public speaking to various groups as part of the education and outreach
• Meetings with major and regional newspaper editors
• Writing articles for our own and other organization's newsletters
• Providing input to Roper public opinion poll questions.  

Through its extensive network of partners the Council was able to broaden the base of the Working Lands Alliance by recruiting groups not traditionally involved in farmland issues: historic preservation, environmental, land preservation trusts, regional planning, municipal and town planning, municipal organizations and landscape architects.

Outcomes

• Getting groups that may have been in conflict, e.g., environmentalists and farmers, to see their common mutual interest and work together on a strategy
• Providing data documenting the rapid pace of farmland conversion - 23% lost in last 16 years
• 13 state and regional newspapers published editorials and articles on need to improve the farmland preservation program
• Statewide public opinion poll developed by the Roper organization, showed that 90% of residents in Connecticut feel that preserving farmland for future generations is important and that 79% believe the state should fund farmland preservation.
• Raised awareness of the urban-rural connections and interdependence, which forged a bond between rural and urban state legislators who collaborated to introduce legislation.
• Legislation that to date, is still under consideration, that would provide a stable, 5-year funding source to the Dept. of Agriculture's Farmland Preservation Program

How did quality of life in rural America improve?

Working farmland is a key element of rural life and rural character in Connecticut's small towns and rural areas. If state legislation endorsed by the Working Lands Alliance passes, the state will be able to expedite purchase of thousands of acres of farmland, which is vulnerable to development pressures. The public education campaign led to farmland preservation becoming an issue within the state legislature and in the media. Public awareness and appreciation of the values of farming has increased. In the long term this can only help the climate for farmers on the edge.