Dear Friend of American Farmland Trust,

This year, as American Farmland Trust celebrates our 30th anniversary, it’s a good time to look back and realize how much has been accomplished by the farmland conservation movement in three decades. When a small group of forward-looking farmers and conservationists launched American Farmland Trust in 1980, they were alarmed by how much of the nation’s farmland was being paved over for sprawling development, and equally concerned by how little was being done about it.
       
Since that time, we can be proud of American Farmland Trust’s role as the catalyst of a national conservation movement—one that has protected over three million acres of farm and ranch land and established environmentally sound farming practices on millions more. Much has been accomplished all over the country by farmers working with conservationists, concerned citizens and elected officials during 30 years of efforts to protect the nation’s working lands and promote environmental stewardship.

But lately, as I talk to officials in other countries—I am reminded how the world is becoming ever more interdependent, and how important our farmland is as a global resource. A report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations provided a wake-up call for many recently; it stated that global food production needs to nearly double by the middle of this century to feed an expected world population of nine billion. And this must happen on less land—as we continue to develop farmland around the world at an alarming rate.

Ensuring food security for a growing world population—amid political instabilities and the uncertainties of climate change—will require scientific advancements, new technologies and improved management practices. It’s a job no single non-profit organization, company or government can tackle alone, but American Farmland Trust has a very important role to play in helping meet the needs of a growing and hungry world. For three decades, we’ve led the effort to save the land that provides food, fiber and fuel for the nation and world—making farmland conservation and environmental stewardship a public priority and a key element of national farm policy.

Our efforts to help the nation achieve food security, environmental sustainability and economic growth through agriculture are needed more now than perhaps at any time in the past.  As we continue our work during the next 30 years to help farmers and ranchers protect the land, keep it healthy and grow food for their communities, the foresight of our organization’s founders—who had the wisdom to realize three decades ago, when so few others did, that our farm and ranch land is an irreplaceable resource worthy of protecting—looks more prescient than ever.

Thank you for your continued support. Jon Scholl President American Farmland Trust