Description

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America’s farms are key to the preservation of vital ecosystems and a stable climate. Yet farmers and environmentalists have not always seen eye-to-eye about the best ways to manage agricultural landscapes. Since 1980, American Farmland Trust (AFT) has been bringing people together to work for healthy land and a healthy food system.
 
No Farms, No Food traces the development of this powerful coalition responsible for landmark achievements in farmland preservation and conservation practices. It all began with Peggy Rockefeller’s determination to stop the inexorable urban sprawl that was threatening the nation’s agriculture. From this humble start grew a small but astute organization, and more importantly, a formidable constituency of farmers and environmentalists united around a common cause.
 
With leadership from AFT, that constituency drove through Congress the first “Conservation Title” in the history of the U.S. Farm Bill; oversaw the development of agriculture conservation easement programs throughout the country; and continues to develop innovative approaches to sustainable agriculture.
 
No Farms, No Food takes readers inside the political and policy battles that determine the fate of our nation’s farmland. And it 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.
 

About the Author

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Don Stuart is a former director for AFT’s Pacific Northwest Regional Office and has also served as executive director for the Washington Association of Conservation Districts and executive director for Salmon for Washington, a nonprofit trade association. Stuart is the author of Barnyards and Birkenstocks: Why Farmers and Environmentalists Need Each Other.
 

Praise For…

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"AFT’s focus on farmland, farming practices, and farmers is essential. At stake is no less than our food and water security in the face of dramatic, potentially catastrophic weather patterns. We can and must rise to the occasion—as agriculture and its transformation must be central to America’s future. As it has for forty-plus years now, the American Farmland Trust has an outsized role to play in driving this transformation."
— William K. Reilly, former US EPA administrator and president of the World Wildlife Fund; longtime AFT board member and past board chair

"American Farmland Trust was at one time the only group that viewed agriculture and the environment as two sides of the same coin.  AFT’s enduring legacy is that traditional farm groups now embrace conservation, and environmental groups now see farming as part of the solution. Don Stuart shows how far we’ve come."
— John Piotti, President, American Farmland Trust