Landowners in Vermont or Massachusetts selling easements with this affordability option are paid the difference between the market value of the farm and its agricultural value, which is significantly less. That increases the cost of conserving the land over a traditional easement by an average of 10 to 40 percent. But the payoff in fresh, local food, jobs and young farmers in the community is easily worth it.

In the next 20 years, 70 percent of the nation’s farmland will change hands.Farmers do not live forever, and most farm kids do not choose to carry on the family business. An eager generation of young Americans is motivated to farm but, like us, they need land and few will be able to secure it without help.

The federal government and states spend hundreds of millions of dollars on farmland conservation each year, which can do much more than protect pastoral views for the wealthy. Those dollars must also be used to shore up rural economies and national food security with productive farms.

Eighty percent of us live in or near cities. It’s critical that farms ring those cities, and that farmers in the ring be protected. The United States Department of Agriculture spends money to preserve farms, but matching funds are required, and there aren’t enough. In New York State, the Farmland Protection Program hasn’t come to the aid of any new farms in five years.

Smart, self-interested cities would be wise to do their part. New York City needs to think about the land beyond the boroughs. The need is well documented: a recent study identified 614 vital unprotected farms in the Hudson Valley.

New York City invested in the protection of its watershed in the Catskills; it needs to do the same with farmland to assure fresh food. It must come up with the money and leadership to help regional land trusts protect farms.