Sandwiched between the Boone Golf Club and the Watauga Medical Center are the 12 acres Claud Austin still farms in Boone. The 75-year-old Watauga County Farm Bureau member keeps about 25 head of beef cattle in this northwestern North Carolina town that’s grown by leaps and bounds thanks to tourism and Appalachian State University.

Austin remembers a time when Boone was a different place—primarily farmland tucked along the mountains. Now, he keeps a close eye on his Hereford cattle.

“You have to maintain your fences,” Austin says. “That’s something I’m very particular of. My cattle do not get out of the pasture. I maintain my fences very well just to make sure. If they get out on U.S. 321, nothing good is going to happen.”

According to the most recent U.S. Census data, Watauga was one of 27 counties that watched population grow anywhere from 11.4 percent to 22.8 percent between 2000 and 2009. Watauga’s resident figure climbed at the same rate as more urban counties such as Forsyth, Guilford and Durham. Only 14 of North Carolina’s 100 counties lost population in the past 10 years.

A better climate and job opportunities are just a couple of the reasons why people from the Midwest and Northeast are migrating to North Carolina. But the population swell has its ramifications—especially on agriculture.

Since 2002, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler estimates North Carolina has lost more than 6,000 farms and 600,000 acres of farmland, putting the state in “the unenviable position of leading the nation in farm loss,” he says.

To turn that tide, the state established the Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund in 1998. The trust fund’s purpose is to support projects that encourage the preservation of qualifying agricultural, horticultural and forest lands, while fostering the growth, development and sustainability of family farms. Grants can be awarded for agricultural agreements that promote the active production of food and fiber on farm and forest lands; public and private enterprise programs that promote profitable and sustainable farm and forest lands, and the purchase of conservation easements on farm and forest lands.

The trust fund is overseen by a 16-member advisory board, which includes a Farm Bureau staffer.

Earlier this year, officials awarded more than $1.8 million in grants to help 19 communities.

“The trust fund was able to assist 19 projects with funding this year,” Troxler says. “Although there’s a lot more work to be done, I am pleased with the progress counties and conservation groups are making to protect our valuable agricultural resources.”

Despite the work of initiatives, such as the trust fund, state leaders say efforts to keep North Carolina’s agriculture industry healthy will continue to be a challenge.

“As our state continues to grow, we need to do what we can to protect the land that provides us food, clothing and cash crops,” says Rep. Joe Hackney, the N.C. House Minority Leader and the operator of a family beef cattle farm in Chatham County.

“There is increasing pressure to sell farmland to developers as more people move to North Carolina, but when we do that we sacrifice our future,” Hackney adds. “Farmland preservation is a long-term strategy to keep this state’s agriculture industry strong.”