Oconee County is going forward with the process of identifying and selecting farms for a farmland protection program even though there is no federal money to make the program work.
The local office of the United States Department of Agriculture, which administers the federal program, in July turned back $175,000 in federal funds that were available to the county for farmland protection this year, saying that the county “opted not to put a farm forward” for 2013 funding.