U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell is touting the recent passage of his Protecting American Farmlands Act, now signed into law as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by President Donald Trump on Independence Day.

The new legislation is designed to help stem the steady decline of American farmland by reducing capital gains taxes on farmland sales — encouraging property to stay in agricultural use for future generations.

The measure allows landowners to defer capital gains taxes for up to four years if they sell their farmland to another farmer, provided the buyer keeps the land in active agricultural production for at least 10 years.

McConnell called it “a huge win” for Kentucky farmers, because it will help preserve vital farmland for future generations.

Support for the legislation also comes from the Kentucky Farm Bureau, which recently launched the Kentucky Farmland Transition Initiative (KFTI). The initiative is focused on helping aging farmers pass down farmland while navigating financial challenges — including burdensome capital gains taxes.

Eddie Melton, president of the Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation, said capital gains relief gives farmers “another tool” to keep land in the hands of active producers, while slowing the drastic loss of farmland across the country.

According to the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture, Kentucky has lost 1.4 million acres of farmland over the past two decades, including 546,000 acres just in the last five years — an average of 290 acres per day. The number of farms has dropped from more than 86,000 in 2002, to just under 70,000 in 2022.

At the same time, the farming population is aging rapidly. The average age of a Kentucky farmer is now 57.1 years old, with an estimated 1.3 million farmers nationwide at or beyond retirement age.