Agricultural Viability in Puget Sound

Restoring Puget Sound depends on the protection of working lands, which preserves their ecosystem services and prevents conversion to development. This includes the farmland that produces fresh, local food and other products for our communities. But we can’t just focus on protecting the land. We must keep farmers on the land with strategies that support their livelihoods and the viability of agriculture in the region.

American Farmland Trust has teamed up with Puget Sound Partnership to address this gap in advancing the recovery of the watershed. Working with a steering committee that includes farmers, conservation districts, agricultural service providers, county planners, and state agencies, we are developing an action plan that will serve as a roadmap for agricultural viability in Puget Sound, including a toolkit with strategies for local governments and indicators that can measure progress. This work will be informed by farmers through a survey, focus groups, and interviews.

Agricultural Viability Reports

In 2024, American Farmland Trust conducted a survey of former, current, and aspiring farmers to help understand the state of and opportunities for increasing agricultural viability for producers in the Puget Sound region of Washington.

An overall report for the Puget Sound, along with reports for each of the counties with the highest number of respondents, are available for download.

Toolkit & Action Plans

The Puget Sound Toolkit for Local Action is a series of case studies from around the sound, highlighting pathways towards agricultural viability that other counties can learn from, adapt, and adopt.

The Puget Sound Agricultural Viability Action Plan is a document that includes goals and strategies for increasing the viability of regional agriculture. While written for the Puget Sound counties, the information will be useful for other counties both within and outside of Washington State.