Letter to the Editor

Daily News-West Bend

June 16, 2004

I wish to commend the Elbe family of Farmington and The Daily News for a fine article on preservation of our farmland. Not too often do you see young people looking into the future.

A long time ago, Theodore Roosevelt was concerned as to what was happening with our land, which he referred to as “the future womb of this country.” This was directed at generations after his time. At present, documentation indicates that we are destroying two acres of farmland each minute. Since 1950, Wisconsin has destroyed almost 7,000,000 acres.

Many states are concerned, just as the Elbe family, and they have Purchase of Development Rights (PDRs) or something similar. Two of these states are Delaware and Maryland. There they purchase the land and sell it back to a prospective farmer at a loss, thus insuring that the land can only be used for agriculture.

If we do not start to conserve on our food producing farmland, we will not be a self-sustaining nation. Our politicians have expressed great concern that the terrorists will poison any imported food. The more we must depend on incoming food, the greater the threat.

During the cold war, the communists said they would destroy us from within. I feel we are doing a good job of it ourselves if we continue down this path of farmland destruction.

Art Filber, Town of Wayne