Farmer receives farmland protection grant

Yatsonsky gives up development rights

By TOM KANE

HONESDALE, PA — Under a state agriculture program, farmers Jim and Julie Yatsonsky will receive $240,000 for surrendering the development rights on their 212-acre farm south of Honesdale. By that action, they cannot use the property for any purpose other than farming.

The goal of the program is to stop the loss of farmland to subdivision, thereby eliminating the farms throughout the state, according to the PA Department of Agriculture.

In the program’s 21-year history, 428,708 acres on 3,928 farms have been safeguarded from development. In the most recent move, an additional 3,332 acres on 31 farms in 19 counties have been added.

The Yatsonsky farm was included in this most recent grant, which is part of the Pennsylvania Conservation Easement Purchase Program.

While the grant is attractive, it may not equal what the Yatsonskys could get for their land from a developer during a business boom. “Right now, the market is very poor,” Jim said.

Yatsonsky’s family has been dairy farmers since 1929 when Jim’s grandfather Vincent bought the property to raise vegetables. “I’m the third generation and I don’t want to stop now,” he said. Though Jim has four sons, he doubts any of them will take after him. “One of them might, but I really don’t know.”

The farm used to be a dairy operation but that changed 10 years ago. “Dairy farms are closing every year so this is a step to keep farms operating. The return I got wasn’t worth it. Milk prices that I got from the coop in 1999 were the same prices I got 20 years before,” he said.

He stopped milking and turned to several other agricultural activities, like raising vegetables. He and Julie also sell ice cream to people who visit the corn maze that he builds every year, and who come to purchase produce at the Honesdale Farmers market every Saturday morning during the summer.

They raise beef cows and sell calves that have been weaned from their mothers. Jim also drives a school bus. “I love the life with a passion and will do anything to keep it,” he said.

Jim is encouraged by the expansion of farmers markets during the summer and for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs that have sprung up in the area. He maintains a CSA on his farm where people buy shares in the farm and receive specified amount of produce.

He said he recognized the growing trend for consumers to buy fresh and not support the trucking of produce over thousands of miles from states like California and Florida. ”I don’t know whether there will be enough farms to satisfy consumers if the trend grows fast, like it seems to be doing,” he said.