U.S. Rep. Bill Foster recently visited with Farm Bureau members in Kane County, Ill. to discuss the relationship between federal legislation and the local agricultural community.  At the meeting, which took place at the Gould Farm, a three-partner cooperative stretching nearly 5,000 acres, Foster (D-Batavia) appealed to farmers to seek positions in government as a means to best represent their interests. The housing bust has slowed residential building yet, in New York and New Jersey, shaky state and local budgets are resulting in cuts to conservation funding.  The Wall Street Journal reports that with preservation groups limited in their ability to take advantage of the stalled development, the reduced financial support for farmland and open-space protection is somber news in a region highly impacted by sprawl.   The Keystone State faces similar woes. In Lehigh County alone, farmland preservation dollars have dropped from $2 million a year to no allocation of funds for 2011. Even amid a difficult financial climate, a Bedminster, New Jersey couple has worked with state and federal farmland preservation groups to place an agricultural easement on 60 acres of their historical farm.  The property, dubbed “Temenos” – Greek for “sacred space” – was once home to the famous publishing Scribner family and is the second property in the township to be protected in the past six months. Where does Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) spend his summer vacation? In his combine on his family operated farm near Big Sandy, Mont. Tester joins Iowa Senator Charles Grassley as the only two Senators who remain active farmers.