The initial pilot of the Keep Farming program was undertaken in two communities in Butler County, Pennsylvania - Buffalo and Clinton Townships.

Butler County is the fastest growing area in southwestern Pennsylvania with rapid sprawl occurring primarily along its southern tier.  From 1987 to 1997, the county lost 17.5% of its prime farmland, one of the highest rates in the state.  Clinton Township (population 2,779) and Buffalo Township (population 6,827), located in southeast Butler County, about 1 hour from Pittsburgh, are just starting to experience the development pressures that have affected townships to their west.

Traditionally a dairy area, the two communities are engaged in the development of a joint comprehensive plan intended to preserve agricultural land and quality of life in the region.  The Townships' leaders undertook Keep Farming program in order to generate information useful for the design of the joint comprehensive plan, as well as to broaden community support for its implementation.

Buffalo and Clinton have completed the assessment phase of the project and have begun the implementation phase, Taking Action:  Developing a Strategy for your Community.  Thus far, the program has helped build connections between the leaders in the two townships and enhance their working relationship in support of the comprehensive planning process.  The data collected during the assessment phase of the program has created a greater awareness among residents regarding the size and scope of agriculture in the two townships and has resulted in a renewed commitment by the community to support agriculture.

Through the initial Taking Action discussions, the joint committee began to more fully understand the potential impacts that the comprehensive plan could have on farmers and determined to be "creative" to ensure that the plan which is proposed for the two townships will be supportive of rather than detrimental to the agriculture community.

The program has had at least one concrete result as well.  A dairy farmer in Clinton Township, who learned about conservation easements during the Keep Farming training, donated a conservation easement on his farm in the hopes that other farmers in the region will follow his example.