Farmland Protection Policy Act
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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., 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 William Kane Reilly (born January 26, 1940) was Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President George H. W. Bush. He has served as president of World Wildlife Fund, as a founder or advisor to several business ventures, and ...
, founded AFT in 1980. Norm Berg, former chief of the Soil Conservation Service (now the
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 ...
), 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, 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 Wolfe's Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment (formerly Wolfe's Neck Farm) is a sustainable coastal farm in Freeport, Maine, United States. Located at 184 Burnett Road, the farm was established in 1959 by Philadelphia natives Eleanor Hou ...
with an agricultural conservation easement. In 2000, AFT helped launch Smart Growth America. 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 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 as a way to bring about multiple environmental benefits, including carbon sequestration. 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. 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, 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 (succeeded by the Agriculture Conservation Easement Program, or ACEP) and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, 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