Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara announced that $38 million in grant funding is now available to assist local farmers in Montgomery County to protect valuable and at-risk farmland. This funding comes as part of the state’s Farmland Protection Implementation Grant program that Assemblyman Santabarbara advocated for as a member of the NY State Assembly’s Agriculture Committee.

“Supporting family farms is vital to our local economy,” said Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara. “Here in the Montgomery County, generations of hardworking farmers are at the heart of New York's history of a thriving agriculture,” Assemblyman Santabarbara said. “This funding is a commitment to preserving some of the richest farmland in the Eastern United States that our communities depend on.”

Municipalities, counties, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and land trusts are all eligible to apply for individual grants of up to $2 million. These grants will go toward the costs of conservation projects that protect viable agricultural land from being converted to non-agricultural use.