California Ag Network

Tag: AFT

  • Biochar Promise for Ag Can Be Realized When Gov’t Agencies, Research Institutions, NGOs and Industry Come Together

    American Farmland Trust, the National Center for Appropriate Technology and the U.S. Biochar Initiative today released Recommendations to Scale Up Sustainable Biochar Research and Commercialization for Agriculture and Conservation, which outlines actions to facilitate the development of a sustainable industry to supply biochar as a crop and grazing land amendment for farmers. Investment in research, production capacity, market mechanisms, outreach, and education will facilitate the broader application of biochar on farms and secure benefits for agriculture along with the delivery of renewable energy as a coproduct.

    In March 2022, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), NCAT and AFT hosted a two-day virtual event on biochar research and commercialization. Discussions reflected broad agreement that building a pyrolysis biochar and bioenergy industry is a promising near-term strategy for carbon removal. Sustainable fit-for-purpose biochar integrated in soil health management systems has potential to address climate change, build productivity and resilience of farms and forests, and create jobs and opportunity across rural America. Chuck Hassebrook, Director of NCAT’s Biochar Policy Project said, “There is great opportunity to build a biochar and biofuel industry that enhances soil health, sequesters carbon, improves farm and forest income, and creates jobs and opportunity across rural America. But federal investment in research and development is needed to unlock that opportunity.”

    Building a sustainable pyrolysis biochar bioenergy industry will require a coordinated, multi-faceted strategy. Supportive public policy is needed to prompt investment in production capacity and market development. Convening participants stressed that commercially relevant results are needed during the next five years. Rachel Seman-Varner, Senior Scientist at AFT said, “Current barriers limit the widespread production and use of biochar, and therefore the realization of the full potential climate adaptation and mitigation benefits of the practice. Key barriers can be addressed with a cross-agency, multi-stakeholder approach outlined with these recommendations.”

    This white paper presents four core policy recommendations derived from the convening.  

    • Coordinated Biochar Research Initiative – A coordinated research approach is recommended that includes cross-site and site-specific research to understand the interactions between various biochars, soils, crops, management, and weather as proposed in the Biochar Research Network Act introduced recently in Congress.
    • Biochar Outreach, Extension and Education – In order to scale up biochar use, gaps in knowledge need to be filled by outreach, extension and education organizations to support farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange, on-farm demonstration trials, development of decision support tools, public-private partnerships to support biochar adoption, and knowledge transfer. 
    • Support of Commercialization of Biochar & Development of a Sustainable Biochar & Biofuel Industry – Developing a sustainable biochar biofuel industry will require strategic incentives and investments – we cannot wait for production and markets to align. 
    • Cross Agency Action Plan – This white paper outlines detailed recommendations for cross agency actions among USDA, DOE, EPA, and other agencies to address policy barriers to biochar adoption.  

    Tom Miles, Executive Director of US Biochar Initiative said, “Biochars and biochar-amended products are being used productively in agriculture today. Improved outreach, government incentives, and long-term research are needed to stimulate investment, scale production, and validate long-term agronomic and environmental benefits.”

    We cannot wait 50 years to realize the potential of biochar. We present these policy recommendations to meet that challenge.

    To view the recorded convening and summary paper along with additional biochar resources, visit the convening webpage on AFT’s Farmland Information Center.

  • No Farms No Food History Never More Relevant as Policy Makers Consider 2023 Farm Bill

    No Farms No Food: Uniting Farmers and Environmentalist to Transform Agriculture by Don Stuart, published by Island Press, recounts the history of American Farmland Trust and its success uniting disparate interests to bring about the protection of farmland and ranchland and the conservation of environmental resources on which our food, fuel, feed and fiber production rely—on which society and the planet relies.

    No Farms, No Food takes readers inside the political and policy battles that determine the fate of our nation’s farmland and food system. It also illustrates the tactics needed to unify fractured interest groups for the common good. No Farms, No Food is both an inspiring history of agricultural conservation and a practical guide to creating an effective advocacy organization. This is an essential read for everyone who cares about the future of our food, farms and environment.

    American Farmland Trust was spawned of a time when our nation faced great social, economic and cultural upheaval. Combine inflation, an oil shock that emptied grocery shelves, a wave of environmental regulation, and a farm industry in crisis.

    In the 1980s, national concerns about the environment and urban sprawl, and the prospect of regulatory approaches to addressing these concerns, was met by strong opposition from an already struggling farm community. The farm debt crisis of the 80s drove many farmers out of business. By 1985, only 2.2 percent of the population lived on a farm, down from 30.2 percent in 1920. Farmland values had crashed, and land was being lost to development at the rate of 3 million acres a year. A focus on yield, based on “Get Big or Get Out” policies of the 1970s was driving soil loss, compromising water quality and challenging wildlife and biodiversity.

    A transformational Federal Farm Bill was needed. The Federal Farm Bill is a massive legislative package that governs agricultural and food programs and drives much of agricultural practice and action. It is renewed every five years.

    In those days, between the private, nonprofit environmental groups and the world of groups representing commercial agriculture, collaboration was largely absent. Environmentalists were convinced that the planet was at risk. Farmers were convinced their industry was on the verge of bankruptcy. Neither saw room for compromise.

    American Farmland Trust led a sea change, building a coalition that reshaped the relationship between American agriculture and the broader environment movement.  An early and significant example of that was the introduction of the Conservation Title in the 1985 Farm Bill.

    Back then and to this day, AFT has advocated for policies that bridge the agricultural and environmental gap, leading groups to meet in the middle. These principles, clearly outlined in Chapter 10 of No Farms No Food, include understanding and respecting underlying motives and points of view. The arguments AFT makes to farmers are not the same ones the organization used with environmentalists. The case is presented to each side in a manner that is grounded in that constituency’s values, stated in their language and respectful of their point of view. But both arguments are true. And the goal is the same for both — a better world for farmers and the environment.

    We are again at a precipice. The Farm Bill is up for renewal in 2023. With all the pressures impacting agriculture and our environment, including the changing climate, 2028 will be too late to implement what is now urgent.

    Since early 2020, Americans have witnessed empty grocery store shelves due to disruptions caused by the pandemic. We are experiencing continued supply change disruptions, rising food prices, an oil shock due to the war in Ukraine, the impacts of climate change including droughts, wildfires, derechos and other extreme weather events.

    At the same time, our agricultural base is shrinking. AFT’s 2020 “Farms Under Threat: State of the States” report showed that 2,000 acres a day is being lost or compromised due to ill-planned development. Farmers are on the frontlines and all of us who eat will continue to be impacted if we don’t help drive change.

    Securing our agricultural land and stewarding it well, building soil health, protecting water quantity and quality, wildlife and biodiversity is critical to our survival.

    We must again reshape the Farm Bill to re-incentivize farmland protection and farming practices that foster productivity, profitability and above all a healthy planet where food is abundant and affordable. This will not be easy, requiring all interests to come together including America’s eaters.

    In his foreword to the book, Bill Reilly, former EPA administrator and president of the World Wildlife Fund, who once served as the board chair at American Farmland Trust, wrote: “The current class of climate activists could learn a lesson or two from how AFT has approached his work over the years.”

    The blueprint is contained in No Farms No Food: Uniting Farmers and Environmentalist to Transform Agriculture, now available from Island Press.

    American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.8 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres, and supported thousands of farm families.

  • American Farmland Trust and Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Publish Guide on Virtual Engagement for Women

    American Farmland Trust (AFT) and Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE)  published information, tips and tools for effective engagement for online education, including hybrid settings for farm and ranch women on topics related to farm viability, resilience and conservation in “Reaching Women in Agriculture: A Guide to Virtual Engagement”. The guide was originally developed through a partnership with AFT and the University of Vermont extension and has recently been updated, enhanced and published by SARE earlier in 2022.

    The guide shares that one of the reasons to create women-focused and women-only events, virtual or otherwise, is to establish a comfortable space for women-identifying individuals to find and access resources, information and networking they typically do not have easy access to in the agricultural services world. The goal is to create a safe space for women to learn from each other and gain confidence, rather than excluding men.

    “The guidance in Reaching Women is born out of AFT’s Women for the Land initiative and the Learning Circle model which arose out of early partnerships with the Women Food and Agriculture Network,” said Gabrielle Roesch-McNally, PhD, guide author and AFT Women for the Land Director. “Learning Circles, where women learn from other women in a setting with no visible hierarchy, have proven effective in engaging women landowners and producers in conversations about land management, particularly regarding agricultural best practices for soil health and water quality. The guide provides best practices for conducting this work in a virtual setting.”

    Reaching Women incorporates both the characteristics of high-quality programs for women in agriculture and the emerging best practices for adapting farmer education and networking events to virtual platforms. It shares innovative approaches and lessons learned from AFT efforts and the efforts of our partners to engage women in agriculture under the social distancing requirements associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.  This work will continues be critically important for outreach as we continue to integrate virtual engagement in the work we do even as we move beyond acute impacts associated with the pandemic. Rurality, large geographic expanses, expenses associated with childcare and transportation make virtual options for gathering an ongoing need for engaging women in agriculture.

    The guide brings everything together in profiles of work done by partner organizations in the agricultural and natural resources field including Elizabeth Lillard, Women in Conservation Leadership, National Wildlife Federation • Maggie Norton, Practical Farmers of Iowa • Caitlin Joseph and Ashley Brucker (also authors of this guide), Women for the Land Initiative at American Farmland Trust • Cayla Bendel and Kim Cole, Pheasants Forever • Jean Eells, E Resources Group, LLC • Lisa Kivirist, formerly with In Her Boots, a program of the Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Service • Wren Almitra, Women Food and Agriculture Network and Women, Land and Legacy

    To order: Download or order your free print copy of Reaching Women in Agriculture at https://sare.org/reaching-women or by calling (301) 779-1007.  Reaching Women in Agriculture is available in quantity for free to educators for use in educational workshops, classes or tours.

    For information on AFT’s Women for the Land initiative and the Learning Circle model, click on included links.

    American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.8 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.

    About SARE: The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program is a producer-driven, decentralized competitive grants and education program operating in every state and island protectorate. Funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture, the program is run by four regions hosted by land grant institutions. Since 1988, SARE has funded over 8,000 competitively funded projects to advance agricultural innovation that promotes profitability, stewardship of the land, air and water, and quality of life for farmers, ranchers and their communities. For more information, visit www.sare.org.

  • American Farmland Trust New Farms for a New Generation Director

    American Farmland Trust New York Regional Director Erica Goodman has been named director of the Farms for a New Generation program, where she will play a critical role to usher in a diverse new generation of farmers and ranchers to access land and help to transform agriculture.

    “One of AFT’s priorities is to make sure that farm and ranchland can transition smoothly within families as well as to farmers and ranchers who won’t inherit land,” said Beth Sauerhaft, AFT Vice President of Programs. “With Erica’s vast experience and passion, we are confident that AFT will stay at the forefront of farmer land transition for generations to come.”

    Goodman has served in the roles of AFT New York Deputy Director and then New York Regional Director since December 2017, where she has worked on issues that spanned AFT’s mission, including transition of land as senior farmers retire. As New York Deputy Director, she coordinated the launch of Farmland for a New Generation New York, a partnership between AFT, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and 34 organizations across the state, which helps connect farmers seeking land and landowners looking to stay in farming through centralized resources, trainings and one-one-one support. The program, which evolved from the successful Hudson Valley Farmlink Network, is now considered the top publicly-funded farmlink program in the country with nearly 100 matches across more than 4,000 acres made since 2018.

    “I am humbled and inspired by the work that AFT is leading, along with our partners and the farmers and farmland owners we work with, to ensure that a diverse new generation of farmers and ranchers can enter farming or expand their operations,” said Goodman. “In my own family, I have seen successful farmland and business transition but also witnessed firsthand what happens when the next generation is not poised to take over. At the same time, new and beginning farmers are eager to farm yet face challenges in finding suitable land at prices they can afford. There is tremendous need to bring these forces together as the successful and equitable transition of farmland is critical to supporting a resilient food supply chain and addressing climate change. I look forward to working with my colleagues at AFT and our partners across the country to build opportunities out of these challenges.”

    Goodman transitions into the role by succeeding Julia Freedgood, who after many years of serving in the same role will write a book on policy and planning tools for resilient food systems. Freedgood will continue to advise AFT on several projects, including Farms for a New Generation.

    Farms for a New Generation works across the country to ensure farmers and ranchers have the resources and training to gain access to land, steward it well and succeed in agriculture. Backed by novel research and facilitated through collaboration, AFT is building the knowledge and skills necessary to support farmers and landowners using adaptable approaches to facilitate successful and innovative land transfers.

    “I am excited to lead AFT’s efforts to ensure farming and ranching addresses inequities in land access and remains part of our national fabric for generations to come,” said Goodman.

    American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.8 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.

  • American Farmland Trust Shares Soil Health Economic Calculator with Customized Almond Version

    Today, American Farmland Trust, the organization that for 40 years has been saving the land that sustains us and advancing the principles of regenerative agriculture shares an updated AFT’s Retrospective Soil Health Economic Calculator (R-SHEC) Tool, providing farmers and the conservation community a means of evaluating the return on investment (ROI) of soil health conservation practices with 2020 price and crop data. The previous version of the tool used 2019 information. This updated pricing allows farmers to obtain a more accurate picture of the costs and benefits of their investments in soil health.

    Impacts of climate change on agriculture and the need for farms to become more resilient to extreme weather are more obvious than ever before. In addition, society is asking farmers to improve environmental outcomes of agriculture, including impacts to water quality and wildlife habitat and to sequester carbon in their soils to mitigate climate change.  Soil health practices like cover crops, no-till, nutrient management and conservation crop rotation can help address these challenges. However, despite farmers’ belief in the science underpinning the practices, they are often reluctant to change management techniques without knowing how much the practices will cost and what the financial benefits will be.

    The R-SHEC Tool is part of a comprehensive set of resources available online and free of charge from AFT on the Soil Health Case Study Methods and Took Kit webpage. The methods, tools and training resources provided are those used by AFT in developing case studies featuring soil health successful farmers in its Quantifying the Economic and Environmental Benefits of Soil Health project funded by a USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service Conservation Innovation Grant. The Tool Kit materials have all been updated for this re-release. The R-SHEC Tool allows evaluation of soil health practices adopted by row crop farmers (corn, soybeans, wheat and hay) for more than four years and within the last 15 years. The tool presents the net economic benefits in a partial budget analysis table and includes an estimate of the ROI in the soil health practices.

    In addition to updating price and cost data in the tool, AFT is releasing a customized almond version to estimate the economic effects of almond-specific soil health practices such as conservation cover, nutrient management, mulching and compost application. AFT believes the Almond R-SHEC Tool is very relevant at this time given the water struggles in California, a key almond producing region and almonds being a high-water use crop.  In 2018, AFT worked with Almond Farmers Tom and Dan Rogers and found they experienced a 25 percent reduction in irrigation water use which they attribute to the increased water holding capacity from the soil health practices used on their farm.

    The next phase of this work, a Predictive Soil Health Economic Calculator (P-SHEC) Tool will enable conservationists to partner with farmers who are “on the fence” about soil health practices to estimate the potential short and long-term economic effects of an investment in practices, hopefully giving the farmers the information they need. This tool will be previewed at the Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Conference to be held virtually on July 26-28, 2021. Interested parties should sign up for Workshop 2 to learn about P-SHEC. The tool will not be released publicly until the fall.

    “AFT encourages our fellow conservationists to use this suite of resources and the new R-SHEC Tools released today to produce their own case studies demonstrating the economic and environmental benefits of soil health,” said Michelle Perez, AFT Water Director. “Our hope is that farmers who have been considering adopting soil health practices will find the economic evidence quantified for a farmer in their area sufficiently compelling to get them to ‘say yes’ to trying soil health practices themselves.”

    American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.8 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.

  • American Farmland Trust Shares Tool Kit to Quantify Soil Health Benefits

    Today, American Farmland Trust, the organization that for 40 years has been saving the land that sustains us and advancing the principles of regenerative agriculture has launched online access to the methods, tools, and training resources it used in developing case studies featuring soil health successful farmers in its Quantifying the Economic and Environmental Benefits of Soil Health project funded by a USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service Conservation Innovation Grant.

    Becoming all the more evident this year, farmers face enormous challenges. Extreme weather, a trade war and pandemic-related market disruptions have made it difficult for many to make a living. In a normal season, farmers work just to maintain yield, keep costs under control and try to improve the profitability of their operations. And, now we are asking farmers to respond to society’s call to improve environmental outcomes like water quality and help to mitigate climate change.  Soil health practices like cover crops, no-till and nutrient management can help address these challenges.  However, despite farmers’ belief in the science underpinning the practices, they are often reluctant to change management techniques without knowing how much the practices will cost and what the financial benefits will be.

    “AFT encourages our fellow conservationists to use this suite of tools and training resources to produce their own case studies demonstrating the economic and environmental benefits of soil health,” said Michelle Perez, AFT water director. “Our hope is that farmers, who have been considering adopting soil health practices, will find the economic evidence quantified for a farmer in their area, sufficiently compelling, to get them to “say yes” to trying the soil health practices.

    Specifically, partners will be able to use  AFT’s Retrospective Soil Health Economic Calculator (R-SHEC) Tool, an 11-tab Excel-spreadsheet tool, to evaluate the costs and benefits of soil health conservation practices including no-till or reduced tillage, cover cropping, nutrient management and conservation crop rotation on row crop farms that have adopted any combination of the practices, ideally for more than four years and within the last 10 years. The tool presents the net economic benefits in a partial budget analysis table and an estimate of the Return on Investment, or ROI, in the soil health practices. The R-SHEC Tool and the case studies that AFT published underwent a review by five NRCS Economists, five NRCS Soil Health Specialists, three university economists, among other experts.

    Materials explain how to use the R-SHEC and how to identify and interview a soil health successful farmer to obtain the data needed to run the tool.  Additional resources are provided to instruct conservationists how to estimate the water quality and climate benefits associated with the already adopted soil health practices using USDA’s Nutrient Tracking Tool and USDA’s COMET-Farm Tool, and then how to assemble all the findings and present them in a compelling two-page case study. A six-part series of training videos provides instructions on each aspect of the process. To access the methods, tools and videos, go to link.

    In spring and summer 2021, AFT will release several new tools:

    • An almond version of the R-SHEC tool that aids estimation of the economic effects of almond-specific soil health practices such as conservation cover, nutrient management, mulching, and compost application.
    • A Predictive Soil Health Economic Calculator (P-SHEC) Tool that will enable conservationists to partner with farmers who are “on the fence” about soil health practices to estimate the potential short-term and long-term economic effects of an investment in practices which will hopefully give the farmers the information they need to overcome their apprehension.
    • An online, user-friendly, web-based version of the R-SHEC Tool.American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.5 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.

  • American Farmland Trust Farmer Relief Fund Awards 1,000 Farmers $1,000

    American Farmland Trust’s Farmer Relief Fund started sending out $1,000 grant checks to 1,000 farmers across the country as Americans witnessed unprecedented disruptions to the food system. A huge thanks goes out to our donors, members and the host of corporate contributors who stepped up when farmers needed it most. The funds are going to help small to mid-size producers that sell direct to consumers, to food services businesses, or to institutions. All funds raised by AFT are being put in the hands of farmers with no restrictions on use, only that they use the money to support modifications to their business model that will get them through until their normal markets return. 

    Direct-to-consumer farmers have been severely impacted by “social distancing” policies and closures that have kept them from selling to their usual customers and necessitated they make dramatic shifts in the way to they do business to stay afloat. With break downs in the broader systems, we’ve seen these farmers step in to bring eggs, milk, meat and fresh produce to consumers.  But their resources are limited, and often small infusions of cash can make a big difference.

    “We are helping in a small way where the need is huge. We believe that farmers who sell direct to consumers were most immediately impacted when the pandemic set it, with no federal safety net in place,” said John Piotti, AFT president and CEO.   “There’s no question that our farmers and ranchers are struggling, no matter what size operation or what they produce. Challenges with transportation, labor shortages and even COVID-19 among the processing workforce has disrupted Americans’ ability to put food on their tables, especially those that have been or are now food insecure.”

    The range of farmers that will be helped by The Fund is diverse, from farmers that sell specialty produce items tailored to restaurants, to farmers that depend on flower sales for weddings or Community Supported Agriculture memberships to sell their vegetables, small grass-fed beef operations that sell to local butcher shops and farmers that market all kinds of products through farm to school programs.

    On March 27, Billy Salmon, owner of Banks Mountain Beef, had 70 brood cows on 450 acres and over a dozen calves on feed that would have been ready for processing in 30–60 days. Billy direct-markets grass-fed, non-GMO-grain-finished beef to restaurants and butcher shops in Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. Billy’s sales dropped to zero with the COVID-19 outbreak. “I don’t do this for the money. I do it for the love of farming. That’s what drives most of us,” said Billy. “But this is a tremendous shock. I certainly appreciated hearing from AFT, who I have been working with to implement regenerative farming practices in my beef operation, about the Farmer Relief Fund.”

    Fourth generation farmers Brent and Nicole Coston are the owners and operators of Bearwallow Valley Farm, located between the Smokey and Blue Ridge mountains. The Costons have focused their production on addressing food insecurity, partnering with housing developments to deliver fresh produce and most recently with a local hospital to provide a discounted CSA box to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients. Their CSA offering is their largest source of income. With the onset of the coronavirus, 75% of their shares got canceled. “We were able to recoup some off that by increasing our presence on social media, but not as much as we expected,” said Nicole. Regardless, she maintains a strong faith that her farm and her family will be able to weather this storm. “I know that someway, somehow my family will get fed and this business will continue.”

    Hilltop Community Farm, owned by Erin Schneider and Rob McClure, derives up to 70% of its income from fruit and flower sales for weddings and restaurants. Vanished event and restaurant sales have compelled McClure and Schneider to narrow their market segment to focus on their neighborhood, connecting with individuals and buying clubs that purchase directly from local farms. “We’re all asking questions about how this will play out, but we think we might as well adapt and experiment!” Schneider said. Hilltop has also been working to expand its online presence to offer the experience of a farm without physically being there.

    Alejandra Rodriquez Boughton’s La Flaca Farm grows herbs, chilis, fine greens and edible flowers selling to restaurants across Austin. With the arrival of the COVID-19 virus, her orders dried up overnight just as she was about to ramp up for spring. To keep going, La Flaca is working to make its products available through direct-to-consumer apps and pivoting their crops to meet the needs of their community. “This summer we’re going to try planting peppers, since they’ll be able to grow in the Texas summer heat and drought,” explained Rodriguez Boughton.

    AFT plans to continue fund raising to meet the urgent need to help farmers and to shore up the local and regional food supply.

    Meanwhile, we ask Congress to move fast to provide federal assistance for farmers and ranchers including implementation of the agricultural support provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act under which the USDA announced that it will provide $16 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers plus an additional $3 billion in purchases of agriculture products including meat, dairy and produce.

     In addition, AFT is working with allied organizations and congressional staff to advocate for additional stimulus to producers that would also support improvements in conservation outcomes and protect the land base, which AFT believes will be vulnerable to development as farmers and ranchers face growing uncertainty about the economy and their future in agriculture.

    American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.5 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.

  • First-Ever National Report on Non-Operator Landowners

    Providing pathways to engaging landowners who rent their land — representing around 40% of U.S. agricultural acres — and to scaling up regenerative practices for improved conservation and farm productivity outcomes  

    Today, American Farmland Trust, the organization behind the national movement No Farms No Food® and the Women for the Land initiative, released “Understanding and Activating Non-Operator Landowners: Non-Operator Landowner Survey,” clearing up misconceptions and identifying opportunities to advance conservation on agricultural lands owned by those who do not farm it. The survey focused on individually or partnership owned lands, not institutions or trusts.  

    Around 40% of farmland in the U.S. is rented, in some U.S. counties that number is nearing 80%, and over a third of this land is owned by women. To date, we don’t know that much about how these rented lands are integrated into farmer conservation strategies; however, we know that rented land is less likely to be managed with conservation goals in mind.  Farmers have been reluctant or had difficulty communicating with landowners either because of distance, or because they are held back by their perception — proved unfounded by this survey — that landowners only care about rental payments, not long-term stewardship of the land. What’s more, farm leases are typically verbal and only run for one year, making certain kinds of conservation investments risky.  

    Landowners on the other hand, are often not aware of available conservation programs and are unsure about broaching the topic with their farmers, particularly if they lack on-farm knowledge and experience, which we found is more common when the landowner is a woman.  

    “AFT’s survey revealed a clear communications gap between renters and landowners.  Unfortunately, this communications gap is more about misconception and lack of knowledge than reluctance to implement conservation,” said Dr. Gabrielle Roesch-McNally, AFT Women for the Land director.  

    She continued, “We learned that we have an opportunity to better communicate with landowners and farmers via separate programming as well as by bringing them together to achieve mutually agreed upon conservation goals for the land, which can be facilitated by written leases that have longer terms and are supported by available government funds and collaborative investment for the long-term good of the land.” 

    The survey results provide some of the most comprehensive information we have on women and men NOLs across a diverse geography of landownership in the United States and will help AFT and others identify areas for future work and reinforce the importance of current work: furthering regenerative farming practices, farmland preservation and improved conservation outcomes on the landscape.  

    Our report challenged two commonly held ideas about NOLS; that they only care about the financial bottom line and that they don’t really care about the land. Our study simply doesn’t find this to be true. They do care about conservation, even if they don’t know as much about it or are not as connected to resources that would enable them to get more support to facilitate conservation. They also deeply care about stewarding the land for future generations and are thinking about farmland preservation.  

    We found a few other surprising things from this work, including:   

    • The gender of NOLS matters but perhaps not in the ways we thought. It’s not that women care more for the land. In fact, as many men NOLS indicated a strong desire to steward and protect the land. 
    • Many respondents do not have a succession plan for the land, leaving uncertainty about what will happen to the land in the future.  
    • NOLs are supportive of their renters taking conservation-oriented action on the land and are willing to support them via several formal mechanisms (e.g., lease changes, cost-share, etc.).  

    The report’s call to action includes five key actions to guide future outreach and engagement with NOLS: 

    1. Cultivate greater awareness among NOLs regarding government conservation programs. 
    2. Amplify NOLs’ willingness to support their operators with conservation practices on the land, but there are nuances. 
    3. Reach out to female, and male, NOLs to improve outcomes on rented land. 
    4. Engage NOLs to cultivate greater opportunities to strengthen their ties to farming, the land and community. 
    5. Emphasize the need for succession planning among aging NOLs. 

    The full report was proceeded in late 2019 by fact sheets providing state-specific outcomes and strategies for all 11 states we surveyed. These fact sheets can be found in the NOL resource bank. Other resources can be found on the Farmland Information Center for NOLs and farmers who rent land.    

    “Understanding and Activating Non-Operator Landowners” will guide several critical AFT programs — AFT’s Women for the Land initiative that works with women non-operating landowners and farmers via women-centered learning circles to increase knowledge on conservation, climate resilience, and farmland succession planning; AFT’s Great Lakes Protection Fund,  a pilot program to engage women landowners, operators, and agricultural retailers to achieve measurable conservation outcomes in the Great Lakes region to reduce run off and improve soil health; and AFT’s leadership in working with landowners to develop succession plans through our Farmland Legacy program, work designed to address the great transition of land coming in the next 15 years as 371 million acres of American farmland will change hands as senior farmers retire.

    American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.5 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on a half million additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.

  • Leading Farm, Conservation, and Wildlife Groups Unite to Protect Conservation Funding

    Having succeeded in protecting funding for the Conservation Title in the 2018 Farm Bill, more than 140 leading farm, conservation, and wildlife groups are once again joining together to protect those hard-fought conservation funds and programs in the fiscal year (FY) 2020 appropriations process.

    In a letter delivered recently, the groups, which include the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), National Farmers Union (NFU), National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD), National Wildlife Federation (NWF), and American Farmland Trust (AFT), called upon appropriators to respect the funding decisions made in the 2018 Farm Bill and reject any cuts to farm bill conservation funding through the appropriations process.

    Farm bill conservation programs, including the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), play a vital role in helping farmers, ranchers, and landowners to keep their lands sustainable and profitable for generations to come.

    “America’s farmers and ranchers worked hard to ensure that the 2018 Farm Bill included support for the conservation programs they rely upon,” said Alyssa Charney, NSAC Senior Policy Specialist. “The Agriculture Committees listened when farmers told them what they needed to thrive, and now we are asking congressional appropriators to do the same. The farm bill process is closed; appropriators should seek to build upon the foundation laid by the 2018 Farm Bill, not attempt to undercut it. Appropriators have protected these programs in their last two funding bills, and we now ask them to continue to do so in FY 2020.”

    “As America’s farm and ranch families endure significant environmental and economic challenges, it is as important as ever that we maintain funding for voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs,” said Roger Johnson, President, NFU. “Congress just last year passed a farm bill with strong provisions and mandatory funding for conservation programs. Appropriators should reject changes that were settled in the process of crafting the Farm Bill and provide adequate funding to NRCS staff to fulfill their important role in ensuring the sustainability of family farms across the country.”

    “Farm Bill conservation programs are critical to addressing America’s wildlife crisis,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “We call on lawmakers to reject any efforts to cut mandatory funding for Farm Bill conservation programs. These effective and widely supported programs give farmers and ranchers the tools they need to voluntarily restore important habitat for wildlife across America’s working lands and proactively recover at-risk wildlife populations.”

    In their letter, the 146 organizations also urged appropriators to protect funding for conservation technical assistance.

    “Ensuring full funding of CTA and farm bill programs will continue to allow conservation districts to work hand-in-hand with NRCS at the local level to deliver conservation on America’s landscapes,” NACD President Tim Palmer said. “Farm bill conservation programs are essential to our nation’s producers, as well as the consumers of their products. We urge Congress to protect and sustain conservation funding to allow our producers to continue providing a safe, reliable food supply while emphasizing locally-led conservation solutions to improve the quality of our nation’s soil, water and natural resources.”

    The wide range of organizations signed on to the letter speaks to how significantly any cuts to conservation programs and technical assistance would be felt across the country.

    “Farm Bill conservation programs are critical to the efforts of farmers and ranchers across this country to voluntarily protect their land from development and implement environmentally sound farming practices,” said John Piotti, President & CEO of American Farmland Trust. “At a time when we are losing three acres of farmland per minute, it is absolutely necessary to save every last dollar for these programs and serve as many farmers and ranchers as possible.”

    AFT, NACD, NFU, NSAC, and NWF stand united with the more than 140 co-signed organizations in urging appropriators to protect funding for critical conservation programs and technical assistance in FY 2020.

    About American Farmland Trust (AFT):

    American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.5 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally sound farming practices on millions of additional acres, and supported thousands of farm families.

    www.farmland.org

    About the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD):

    The National Association of Conservation Districts is the nonprofit organization that represents the nation’s 3,000 conservation districts, their state and territory associations, and the 17,000 men and women who serve on their governing boards. For more than 70 years, local conservation districts have worked with cooperating landowners and managers of private working lands to help them plan and apply effective conservation practices. For more information about NACD, visit: www.nacdnet.org.

    About National Farmers Union (NFU):

    National Farmers Union advocates on behalf of nearly 200,000 American farm families and their communities. We envision a world in which farm families and their communities are respected, valued, and enjoy economic prosperity and social justice.

    About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC):

    The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more and get involved at: http://sustainableagriculture.net

    About the National Wildlife Federation (NFW):

    The National Wildlife Federation is America’s largest conservation organization, representing six million members and affiliate conservation organizations in 51 states and territories. The National Wildlife Federation works to unite all Americans to ensure wildlife thrive in a rapidly changing world. Learn more: http://nwf.org/.