In today’s column, we are looking at the status of agriculture and farming in Northampton County.

In our last column, we looked back to agriculture using the 1914 Farm Directory of Northampton County and found there were 3,565 active farms in 1914.

I called the Farm Preservation Office in Northampton County to find what action has been taken to preserve farmland and open space. I am sure many of our citizens support county and local government efforts to preserve land for the future generations.

Mr. Oberly and I checked the 2022 Census of Agriculture. The census lists 421 farms with 58,138 acres. Mr. Ryan Shaw, administrator of Northampton County Farmland Preservation, was very cooperative and forwarded a list of acreage preserved in the county.

A total of 269 farms have been preserved, totaling 19,832.04 acres, because of Act 149 Preserved Farms in Northampton County. Currently, they are in the process of preserving 16 additional farms covering approximately 915 acres.

• Allen Township: 973.53

• East Allen Township: 957.74

• Lehigh Township: 1,062.23

• Moore Township: 2,937.27

• Bethlehem Township: 47.53

• Bushkill Township: 506.21

• Forks Township: 246.23

• Lower Mount Bethel Township: 4,312.63

• Lower Nazareth: 927.33

• Lower Saucon Township: 93.57

• Plainfield Township: 3,405.34

• Upper Mount Bethel Township: 2,281.83

• Upper Nazareth Township: 416.09

• Washington Township: 1,078.80

• Williams Township: 585.64

Our county executive, Lamont McClure, is to be commended for his leadership in preservation. Hopefully, the next county executive will continue to increase the preservation effort.

Is your township doing enough in preserving farmland, which can never be replaced?

Thank you, Mr. Shaw and Ms. Claire Wessner, for your cooperation with the current statistics.

In our next columns, we will share business advertisements from the 1914 Northampton County Farmers Directory.