July 26th, 2024
By Michael Shulman
AFT’s Book on Strengthening Food and Farming Systems Released Today
Book Calls for More Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems to Increase Agricultural Viability, Community Food Security and Environmental Quality
(Washington, D.C.) Planning Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems: From Soil to Soil, a book which informs planning practices and follow-up actions to strengthen America’s food and farming systems, published today.
Authored by AFT Senior Fellow and Senior Program Advisor Julia Freedgood, the book takes a holistic approach, bridging urban and rural communities and lifting up the value of production agriculture whose stewardship of the Earth is critical to public and environmental health, as well as to ensuring a varied and abundant food supply.
“The book focuses on land-based systems, starting with agriculture’s role in ensuring the U.S. can deliver an affordable and nutritious food supply while improving environmental outcomes and addressing economic disparities,” said Freedgood. “It addresses food security in the context of a changing climate, recognizing the importance of America’s farmers and ranchers and supporting rural communities.”
Embracing the fact that the U.S. is highly diverse in its people, places, and politics, the book lifts principles and successful examples to help communities develop strategies based on their unique assets and the needs and preferences of their people.
“In this volume, Freedgood explains how agriculture is not only essential to a sustainable food system, but to combating climate change,” said John Piotti, AFT President and CEO. “She describes the tools needed to incorporate agriculture into state and local plans that all too often ignore it. Finally, she helps us comprehend why we must be thinking of agriculture in all that we do, because, quite simply, our future depends on it.”
Published by Routledge, the book is available at Planning Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems: From Soil to Soil – 1 (routledge.com).
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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 8 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.