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American Farmland Trust awards $1 million to more than 200 farmers

Photo provided by: Kajuanis Knighten

American Farmland Trust is awarding $1 million to help growers improve farm viability; access, transfer, or protect farmland; or adopt regenerative ag practices.

Ashely Brucker, agriculture conservation innovation initiative program manager with American Farmland Trust, says grants provided through the Brighter Future Fund will help improve the lives of farmers.

“Protecting farmland doesn’t stop at signing on the dotted line to ensure the land is always going to be farmed. That protection needs to extend to the soil itself and that’s where regenerative ag practices or soil health practices come into play. We believe they are a long-term investment to ensure the land is always highly productive in terms of crop yield,” she says. “When looking further into the actual operational viability of the farm, using those sound farming practices often decreases financial inputs meaning that return on investment is often maximized allowing profits to be used for growth and reinvestment of the farm instead of just trying to stay afloat. If we can invest in helping farmers implement those regenerative ag practices or those soil health practices at an early stage, it’s going to pay them back so much more and really help all of us with the preservation of farmland in the long-term view.”

She highlighted how a fourth-generation farmer in Louisiana is using the grant.

“Kajuanis Knighten is using her award to address infrastructure through improving her fencing and equipment that had been damaged in some natural disasters,” she says. “She’s also going to be using some of her funds to seek assistance and guidance from business and financial advisors.”

She discusses another grant recipient.

“Yaritza Garcia Ortiz of Puerto Rico is a full-time farmer and single mother of three who employees three other women on her farm. She’s going to use the funds to implement regenerative agriculture practices such as crop rotation and soil health improvements,” she says.

Brucker tells Brownfield AFT recognizes the need for greater equity and inclusion and has prioritized providing resources to farmers who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), women, immigrants, small-scale and limited-resource farmers, veterans, people with disabilities, and people of the LGBTQIA+ communities.

“This year’s awardees are diverse not only in their identifies, but also their projects, locations, experiences, and products,” she says. “We saw everything from a dairy in New York and a pepper farmer in Iowa making small-batch hot sauce to an alpaca farmer marketing fiber in Washington, a diversified vegetable operation in Hawaii who has also integrated goat and sheep rotational grazing and more.”

More than 200 farmers in 44 states and the territory of Puerto Rico will receive up to $5,000 grants.

“This program is such an amazing way for us to get funds directly into the hands of farmers,” she says.  “For those who might not be familiar with the grant process or financial assistance in the agriculture world, there’s often a complex process you must go through. We tried to keep our process as straight forward and simple as possible while still ensuring we’re helping those who are most in need. This is one of those few projects out there that can make an immediate impact in a short amount of time.”

The Brighter Future Fund launched in 2020 with a contribution from Tillamook County Creamer Association. Several other supporters including corporate partners and individual donors have contributed to the Brighter Future Fund.

Since 2020, AFT has provided about $3.5 million in grants directly to more than 2,000 farmers across the nation for pandemic relief, increased resilience, land access, and enhanced viability. Brucker says The Brighter Future Fund accounts for $2 million of that.

Click here or here for more information.

Audio: Ashley Brucker

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