H.R. 2551. Agricultural Lands Protection Act. The vote is on the Grassley motion to kill a $60 million program to help state and local governments set up demonstration projects to test the effectiveness of different methods of protecting farmland. Such methods might include zoning, tax breaks for farmers, tougher taxes for speculators, purchase of development rights, etc. Every day 12 square miles of American farmland is paved or converted to non-farm uses: new housing, shopping centers, highways, reservoirs, etc. Most of this land can never be used for farming again. 50% of New England's farmland and 22% of Midwestern farmland is already gone. Yet we depend heavily on our food exports to prop up our balance of payments! At this rate, we will have trouble feeding our own people, let alone exporting food to the rest of the world. Grassley's motion gutted the bill. It passed 227-163. February 7, 1980. NO is the correct vote.