I read the article “Diversity, Equity, In-Fighting” in your May 24 issue and was dismayed to see that the very important work that the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District is doing around farmland protections was overshadowed by allegations from Joe Rossi that easements put land out of reach for farmers.

Quite the opposite!

Farmers like Rossi are aging out of the profession, and many of them aren’t passing their land on to other farmers.

Instead, developers are buying up farmland at an alarming rate and converting it to subdivisions, warehouses and other unfarmable areas.

It’s true that properties protected as farmland will become “islands in a sea of urbanization,” but you can hardly blame EMSWCD for that problem.

Rather than critiquing the easement process, we need more money for easements and more creative ideas for protecting farmland if we want any at all to remain in Multnomah County.

Emily Cooper

Full Cellar Farm

Boring, Ore.