During a tour of Jordan area farms earlier this month, farmers pitched their ideas of agricutural preservation to the Scott County Board.

Scott County projects its population to jump from 89,498 in 2000 to 220,000 by 2030. Much of that growth is slated to occur on farmland. County commissioners who took a tour that included a dairy farm in Sand Creek Township, a large-scale organic farm in New Prague, and two stops near Belle Plaine, according to the Belle Plaine Herald, listened to comments about the people's right to farm and the inappropriateness of planning for growth on farms that are not adjacent to cities.

One farmer said that Scott County has an opportunity to be a national model for creating a long-term land-use plan that meld the needs of farmland with growing development and that mapping soil qualities would allow the county to point developers toward poorer quality soil.