New SC law aims to preserve dwindling farmland

HOPKINS — When a developer approached Joy Cottle with an offer to buy her family farm in rural Richland County and replace it with houses, the money seemed too much to refuse.

Cottle Strawberry Farm has been in the family since the 1960s. The tradition of growing strawberries survived four generations, including a move from North Carolina to South Carolina, eventually becoming the 230-acre you-pick farm in Hopkins in the early 2000s.

But the developer was offering more than $6 million, more than six times what the land was worth. Cottle didn’t think she could turn that down, she said.

“I was already shopping for beach houses,” Cottle told the SC Daily Gazette on Tuesday.

That was until her son reminded her, “Some dreams can’t be bought,” she said.

Cottle backed out of the deal, deciding instead to expand her farm for her son to eventually take over, to one day be followed by his own children.

“I want this to be their legacy,” Cottle said.

A law ceremoniously signed Tuesday by Gov. Henry McMaster at Cottle’s farm created a fund to buy the development rights for agricultural lands, making it easier for farmers like Cottle to keep farms in their families and preserve them from development.

“This bill gives farmers more options, rather than just saying, ‘Oh, cash in and take the windfall,’” state Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers said of the legislation actually signed into law last month.

South Carolina lost more than 280,000 acres of farmland between 2001 and 2016, according to a study by the American Farmland Trust. The Palmetto State was the eighth most at-risk of losing its farmland, the study found.

“That type of loss is not sustainable,” said Farm Bureau President Harry Ott.

As the state’s population continues to grow, developers are looking for open land to build homes and businesses. Farms like Cottle’s, which is just outside Columbia, are ideal real estate.

“What this is all about is trying to find that balance between industrial development and growth and agriculture,” Ott said. “We need both.”

The program would join the existing Conservation Bank, which buys land under legal agreements that ensure the land can never be developed, known as conservation easements.

Unlike most land conserved by the bank, farmers would be allowed to keep farming and retain full ownership of the land without needing to open it up for public use.

The program would pay farmers for the right to develop their land, guaranteeing it cannot be sold for any purpose other than farming, no matter who owns it.

Senators have proposed putting $3 million into the fund for its inaugural year. Whether that makes it to the final budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 is yet to be seen.

Only certain farms would qualify. The land has to be under threat of development, be working farmland, have value as a natural resource, and be located in or selling agriculture to poor, rural and minority communities.

The farmer also has to be willing to pass on the land, whether to their relatives or — if they don’t have family members who want to carry on the occupation — other farmers.

That can help people looking to become farmers, said Rep. Patrick Haddon, a seventh-generation farmer who sponsored the bill. Robust agricultural programs across the state show that young adults have an appetite for farming, the Greenville Republican said.

But high upfront costs make it difficult to become a first-generation farmer, he said.

“How do you pay for that?” Haddon said.

Selling the land’s development rights would give farmers the peace of mind to sell it without worrying the buyer would turn around and make a big paycheck from a developer, he said.

Retaining farms ensures South Carolina dollars stay in the state, Weathers said. Agricultural products generated more than $17.3 billion in 2022, according to a Department of Agriculture study.

If farmers can no longer grow those products in the state, businesses have to import them, he said.

“We’d spend that same money on those vendors’ products. They would just come from who knows where,” Weathers said.

The law will guarantee more of South Carolina’s land remains untouched by development, McMaster said.

“One hundred years from now, we’re going to be just as beautiful as we are today, and maybe even more so,” he said.