How can farmers paid to protect a local watershed save a huge city billions in infrastructure costs?

I had an opportunity to find out when our team of economists took a field trip to the rolling Catskills some months back. This is where the New York City Department of Environmental Protection is offering financial support to farmers who help maintain water quality for 9.5 million city customers.

It has saved the Big Apple up to $10 billion it would otherwise have to spend on new water filtration plants, along with about $100 million annually to maintain them. Farmers, meanwhile, have been able to use the DEP funding to make improvements to their land and operations, benefiting their own bottom line.