Even as the demand for local food grows, its hard to see how a new generation of farmers will be able to find land near Seattle to farm. PI reporter Jennifer Langston wrote about the increasing demand for farmland and the difficulties that young people have finding and buying affordable land. "As demand grows for local food -- an appetite fueled by health-conscious urban families, schools, food banks and restaurants -- many are questioning where that supply and a new generation of farmers will come from." There seem to be two related issues. Despite efforts by King County to protect farmland, the programs don't always work to keep agricultural land in production.

"Although King County has established agricultural production districts covering 42,000 acres, only 2,200 of those are used to grow crops that feed people, according to a survey conducted two years ago. The rest of the land is wetlands, dairies, livestock crops, animal pastures, horse arenas, roads, houses, lawns, flower farms or nurseries. At least 5,000 acres that could be farmed aren't." There is very little land available for those looking and what land is available is quite expensive. "A matchmaking program run by the Cascade Harvest Coalition has 300 people looking for land to farm. That's six times more than the number of people in the database with acreage to rent or sell. Predictably, farmland through Western Washington has increased in value, often selling for tens of thousands an acre. So, the very efforts to help farmers market their product to folks in the city, while wildly successful, has led to an inability of farmers to meet that demand. Langston writes about what King County and other jurisdictions are doing to try to ease the situation and about how some young people are finding assistance from either programs or neighboring farmers to make a go of it. Take a read. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/363729_youngfarmers20.html