(File Photo of a Farmer’s Market Truck Carrying Vegetables for a Farmer’s Market)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver County, PA) Two farms in Beaver and Somerset Counties will be preserved for farming because the state of Pennsylvania has recently purchased the development rights to those properties. The Shapiro administration announced last month that state and county governments bought the development rights to 25 farms in 17 counties, which invested $7.1 million under Pennsylvania’s Farmland Preservation Program to ensure that the 1,905 acres of land that are included on those farms would be used for agricultural purposes and would not be sold to residential or commercial developers. The development rights on a 62-acre crop and livestock farm in Hanover Township in Beaver County that are owned by William McNary Jr. and Deborah K. McNary, were purchased for $234,140, using funds from the state of Pennsylvania. The development rights on a 125-acre crop and livestock farm in Somerset Township in Somerset County that are owned by Tim E. Bell, Thomas E. Bell and Suzanne K. Bell, were purchased by state and local governments for $187,104, with the state of Pennsylvania paying $181,635 and Somerset County paying $5,469. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, agriculture contributes $132.5 billion to the economy of Pennsylvania and supports almost 600,000 jobs there.