On May 19, 2004, the Connecticut Legislature passed Public Act No. 04-222, requiring local governments to mitigate the loss of active agricultural land they take by eminent domain. Beginning on July 1, 2004, the law requires a local government to either purchase an agricultural conservation easement on "an equivalent amount of active agricultural land of comparable or better soil quality" within its jurisdiction or pay a mitigation fee to the state's farmland protection program to protect similar land elsewhere in the state.

The entire mitigation process is to be supervised by the state's farmland preservation program and subject to the approval of the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Protection.