Defining Agriculture As Land Use

Wouldn’t it seem glaringly obvious that before any government decisions regarding land use development can occur all variables would need to be considered and weighed, especially any impact that such developments would have on agriculture? You would assume so, but then you and I would both be wrong; hence the need for Idaho’s recent amendment to the state’s land use planning act. The state’s former land use planning act didn’t recognize agriculture as a land use. Try rationalizing that info. House Bill 148 rectifies that by specifying that before any rezoning or development decisions can be made the overall affect those decisions may have on land used for agriculture must be carefully weighed and considered. Farmers are of course thrilled over the new bill, stating that it is a great step towards the protection and preservation of agricultural lands used for the production of food and will give agriculture equal footing when it comes to development decisions. Perhaps now zoning officials will thinks twice before giving approval to such ill-conceived notions as putting housing subdivisions butt up against livestock farms.