Cover Story piece on the conversion of New England\u27s agricultural land to othe

Cover Story piece on the conversion of New England\u27s agricultural land to other uses. Sprawl, the enemy of both community and agriculture, is consuming huge tracts of once-productive farmland, largely because farms are eminently buildable. Maine lost 47,000 acres of farmland between 1992 and 1997; 53 percent of its agricultural land has been lost since 1964. According to the state agriculture department, only 12,000 Maine residents are counted among farm families : those who earn a reportable portion of their income by farming. And according to state statistics, more than half of the owners of farmland in Maine are over 60. With a brief history of the Land for Maine\u27s Future program, its criteria for buying farm rights, and a related article about the Maine Farmland Trust, which was created last year and is led by part-time farmer and conservationist Steve Page of Searsmont