AFT Names Ben Kurtzman Director of the National Agricultural Land Network and Senior Advisor
(Washington, D.C.) American Farmland Trust has named Ben Kurtzman as Director of the National Agricultural Land Network and Senior Advisor, where he will lead network development and programming to ensure that the NALN meets its goal of building capacity among agricultural land protection and planning professionals. Kurtzman previously served as AFT’s Director of Land Protection Projects.
“I’m excited to move into the NALN Director role and build on AFT’s long history of providing support to the agricultural land protection community,” said Kurtzman. “The future of agriculture in America depends on our ability to work together to keep agricultural land in production. The NALN empowers agricultural land practitioners to share knowledge, collaborate on new strategies and tools, and respond to the urgent threats facing farm and ranchland.”
Launched in 2020 to elevate the cause of agricultural land protection across America, the NALN works to strengthen the collective capacity of public agencies, planning entities, land trusts, and farm and conservation organizations working to retain and protect agricultural land, and was designed to grow the capacity and momentum needed to elevate the cause of saving agricultural land across America.
Kurtzman hopes to expand the network’s programming to provide additional support to professional groups including attorneys, appraisers, realtors, and land managers working in agricultural land protection and retention. In April 2027, the NALN will host AFT’s national Saving America’s Working Lands Conference in Dallas, which will convene the nation’s leading farmland protection practitioners to explore scalable strategies to save America’s irreplaceable working lands and expand opportunities for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. "The National Agricultural Land Network is an important piece of AFT’s work to save the land that sustains us,” said AFT Vice President of Farmland Protection and Strategic Priorities Jenny Lester Moffitt. “By connecting public agencies, land trusts, planners and other practitioners concerned about agricultural land loss, and providing them with new tools as well as forums for increased peer learning and collaboration, we can ensure that America’s farm and ranch land remains productive for generations to come."
Kurtzman succeeds NALN founding Director Cris Coffin, who will continue her role as AFT Senior Policy Advisor, helping to shape and guide AFT’s federal and state policy development and advocacy, primarily around working lands protection, land access, and farm transfer and succession. Coffin will also continue to be involved in planning AFT’s Saving America’s Working Lands National Conference scheduled for April 7-9, 2027, in Dallas, TX. The conference will showcase and explore strategies to save America’s irreplaceable working lands and expand opportunities for the farmers, ranchers, and rural communities that steward them.
“I’ve enjoyed the chance to establish and grow a network designed to support practitioners seeking tools and strategies to keep working lands working,” said Coffin. “We launched the NALN in 2020 with a 37-state webinar series that helped thousands of practitioners and advocates understand how they could use AFT’s Farms Under Threat: The State of the States findings in their state to support and increase agricultural land retention and protection. The interest that series generated made us realize how valuable the network could be in fostering connections, both within states and across the U.S., among those seeking to stem the loss of working lands.” Coffin notes how the network’s programming has built important connections and peer learning-- from virtual roundtables focused on single states or topics, to a virtual community networking platform, to multi-year projects like Soil Health Stewards and Land Transfer Navigators, which have trained hundreds of land conservation practitioners to support farmers and ranchers seeking to improve soil health or transfer their farm to the next generation.
“Our members are eager to share and learn from each other, and thirsty for new tools and strategies to keep working lands in production. Ben will do a terrific job in continuing to grow the NALN to meet this demand.”
“Looking to the future, we will continue to provide high-level professional networking content to our membership of more than 1,600 organizations and individuals that reflects the current issues and conditions impacting farmland protection practitioners around the country. I’m looking forward to bringing the experience I’ve developed as a land protection practitioner to the Network’s programming,” Kurtzman said.
Kurtzman joined AFT in 2005 and has served in a variety of farmland protection roles. As Director of Land Protection Projects, he oversaw AFT’s in-house land trust function, including the completion of 43 individual farmland protection projects totaling nearly 17,000 acres. In this role, he developed and implemented new Easement Acquisition and BPS programs while overseeing all aspects of easement stewardship and fee land management activities, including AFT’s response to easement assignments, amendments, and violations. Before joining Land Protection Projects, Kurtzman spent 10 years with AFT’s Farmland Information Center, where he managed law and policy research and authored numerous research reports, fact sheets, and technical memoranda on farmland protection. He also coordinated AFT’s annual surveys of State and Local PACE programs and tracked key state and federal legislation related to farmland protection. Kurtzman is a producer of “The Barber Farm,” an award-winning film documenting his in-laws’ efforts to protect their farm in Vermont.
###
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 land, advanced environmentally sound farming practices on millions of additional acres, and supported thousands of farm families.
