American Farmland Trust is a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

organization in the United States with a mission to protect farmland, promote environmentally sound farming practices, and keep farmers on the land. AFT is staffed by farmers, policy experts, researchers and scientists, and governed by a board of directors. Its headquarters are in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and it has regional offices throughout the country. AFT also runs th
Farmland Information Center
an online collection of information on farmland and ranchland protection and stewardship established as a public-private partnership with the USDA

Natural Resources Conservation Service Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners an ...

History

A group of farmers, ranchers, and conservationists, includin
Margaret (Peggy) Rockefeller

Patrick Noonan Patrick F. Noonan (born 1943) is an American conservationist and was president of The Nature Conservancy from 1973 to 1980, and the Conservation Fund. He was a recipient of the Lady Bird Johnson Environmental Award. He graduated from Gettysburg C ...

and William K. Reilly, founded AFT in 1980. Norm Berg, former chief of the Soil Conservation Service (now the

), was an AFT senior advisor for 25 years. Otto C. Doering III, a member of the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) a ...

that won the 2007

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...

, and Jim Moseley, former USDA Deputy Secretary, serve on AFT's board of directors. AFT was one of the first agricultural land trusts in the nation and is the only one with a national scope. In 1985, AFT protected Wolfe’s Neck Farm with an agricultural conservation

easement An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a propert ...

. In 2000, AFT helped launch

Smart Growth America Smart Growth America (SGA) is a US non-profit 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. SGA's mission is to ensure that urban development policies foster safe, equitable, and sustainable community growth. SGA is a coalition of ...

. AFT has helped create state and local land trusts throughout the country, including the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust in 1995 and the Texas Agricultural Land Trust in 2006. In 2012, with the

Electric Power Research Institute EPRI, is an American independent, nonprofit organization that conducts research and development related to the generation, delivery, and use of electricity to help address challenges in the energy industry, including reliability, efficiency, affor ...

and an expert advisory committee, AFT launched the first and largest water quality credit trading program in the United States to improve water quality in the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

basin. The program received the U.S. Water Prize in 2015. AFT leads Farm to Institution New York State (FINYS), which connects

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

farms to publicly-funded institutions in the state. AFT promotes farming practices that improve

soil health Soil health is a state of a soil meeting its range of ecosystem functions as appropriate to its environment. In more colloquial terms, the health of soil arises from favorable interactions of all soil components (living and non-living) that belong ...

as a way to bring about multiple environmental benefits, including

carbon sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool. Carbon dioxide () is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical, and physical processes. These changes can be accelerated through changes in land ...

. In 2017, AFT became the first

United States Climate Alliance The United States Climate Alliance is a bipartisan coalition of states and unincorporated self-governing territories in the United States that are committed to upholding the objectives of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change within their ...

Impact Partner in a effort to implement policies and programs that “sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gases on agricultural lands while improving farm resiliency and productivity.” In 2020, AFT launched the Farmer Relief Fund, which provided grants of up to $1,000 to small and mid-size direct-market producers with demonstrated need due to the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In the same year, AFT became a national sponsor of the Leopold Conservation Award Program, which recognizes the outstanding achievements of more than 100 voluntary conservationists annually.

Federal Policy

AFT has helped shape U.S. farm bills since the 1980s. AFT published the policy document
Soil Conservation in America: What Do We Have to Lose?
' in 1984 and was a member of the conservation coalition that played a significant role in the development of the

Food Security Act of 1985 The Food Security Act of 1985 (P.L. 99–198, also known as the 1985 U.S. Farm Bill), a 5-year omnibus farm bill, allowed lower commodity price and income supports and established a dairy herd buyout program. This 1985 farm bill made changes in a ...

, which established the

Conservation Reserve Program The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a cost-share and rental payment program of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Under the program, the government pays farmers to take certain agriculturally used croplands out of produc ...

(CRP). AFT's work as a proponent of the expansion of government-funded agriculture programs led to the passing of the

2002 Farm Bill The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, also known as the 2002 Farm Bill, includes ten titles, addressing a great variety of issues related to agriculture, ecology, energy, trade, and nutrition. This act has been superseded by the 2007 ...

and the authorization of the

Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) — The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) renamed the Farmland Protection Program (FPP) to the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program in 2003 to accurately reflect the resources eligible to ...

(succeeded by the Agriculture Conservation Easement Program, or ACEP) and the

Environmental Quality Incentives Program The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is a United States government program designed to assist farmers in improving environmental quality, particularly water quality and soil conservation. Congress established the program in the 1996 ...

, among others. AFT advocated to increase funding for the ACEP by supporting the passing of the

Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 The 2018 farm bill or Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 is an enacted United States farm bill that reauthorized $867 billion for many expenditures approved in the prior farm bill (the Agricultural Act of 2014). The bill was passed by the Senat ...

, which would increase the program's funding by $2 billion over the span of 10 years.

Campaign

In August 2020, AFT launched the campaign "Farming Is Our Future". AFT's goals are to "double the amount of permanently protected farmland and reduce current loss by 75%, adopt regenerative practices at scale so that agriculture captures more carbon than it emits, and help 600,000 new farmers and ranchers get started and succeed" by 2040.

References

External links

American Farmland Trust

Farm Bill Facts , American Farmland Trust
{{Authority control Environmental organizations based in Washington, D.C. Nature conservation organizations based in the United States Cultural heritage of the United States