A group of beginning farmers is backing a proposed state law that would extend the state’s agricultural exemption from zoning and building codes to apply to all farms, regardless of size. The bill, House Study Bill 239, would grant small-scale sustainable farming ventures access to the agricultural exemption from zoning. While larger farms have these exemptions, counties have not been uniformly applying this to smaller specialty crop farmers, according to the Eastern Iowa Young Farmers Coalition. The agricultural exemption would apply to properties where at least 51 percent of the gross annual revenue derived from the property comes from the growing, harvesting or selling of crops and livestock raised on or brought to the property and not more than 49 percent comes from agricultural experiences and other farm-related activities. The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton, who is also a beginning farmer. “We need farmers on the land now. In Iowa from 2013 to 2017 we lost 1,600 farms,” Kaufmann said in a press release. “We don’t have a lot of time to change the tide. This young farmer bill will bring young people back into farming.”