Social equity in agricultural land protection has long been discussed (Jacobs, 1989). In Europe, a variety of public policy instruments has been experimented to protect farmland from urbanization, including public acquisition of land, regulatory approaches and incentive-based approaches. In France and Italy, exclusive agricultural or forestry zoning was resorted to in most situations. This land-use planning approach not only failed to avoid urban sprawl in most metropolitan areas but also showed contrasting patterns of equity, according to the place, the time period and rural land tenure. The aim of this paper is to show how the vision of justice has changed since the late 1960s around the issue of farmland preservation. Our in-depth analysis of the history of land use planning in seven suburban municipalities (close to Aix-en-Provence (France) and to Florence (Italy)) shows how public and private actors have dealt with, restricted or legitimated agricultural land conversion to urban functions. The first local development plans triggered major conflicts, as agricultural zoning created a reduction in property values for which owners have not been compensated. The open debates involved a large participation; justice was seen as an equitable distribution of building permits among property owners. In the 1980s, this point of view became less legitimate, but owners’ pressures on mayors went on, through informal infra-institutional negotiations. Urban growth boundaries were periodically reassessed and expanded as needed. In the 1990s, open debates involved new stakeholders, triggering conflicts around sustainability and urban sprawl. Property owners’ claims for building rights became eventually illegitimate. In some highly urbanized settings, strict farmland protection through land-use planning became a way to preserve the landscape and quality of life, by preventing new constructions and the establishment of lower class residents, reopening the debate about social equity of land use planning.