National non-profit founded in 1980 that protects farmland, promotes sustainable farming practices and supports farmers through conservation projects, research and advocacy.
American Farmland Trust (AFT) is a national non-profit organisation founded in 1980 to protect farmland, promote sound farming practices and keep farmers on the land. The organisation describes itself as a pioneer of the conservation agriculture movement, working across the United States through a combination of on-the-ground projects, objective research and advocacy.
Its direct conservation projects have saved more than 7.9 million acres of farmland from development, and it has supported tens of thousands of farmers in adopting sustainable practices. Alongside this fieldwork, AFT produces research on the challenges facing farmers and ranchers and conducts advocacy designed to position agriculture to serve both economic and environmental goals.
The organisation takes a holistic approach linking land, farming practices and the farmers and ranchers who steward it. It cites the loss of roughly 2,000 acres of American farmland to development each day, and the prospect that one-third of U.S. farmland may change hands over the next 15 years as ageing landowners sell, as central challenges to its mission. AFT also runs the No Farms No Food® message, which highlights the connection between the food people eat and the farms that grow it.
Work at AFT spans the agriculture, farming and ranching, land conservation, food systems and environmental conservation sectors, reflecting the organisation's mission-driven culture.
