AFT Names Julia Valliant Director, Farms for a New Generation 

(Washington, DC) American Farmland Trust has named Julia Valliant as Director of the national Farms for a New Generation team, where she will lead efforts to increase access to land and capital for the rising generation of farmers and ranchers and support elder farmers and landowners in transferring their farms with dignity and confidence. 

“I am excited to take on this role as FNG’s director because I know the profound impact this work has,” said Valliant. “To help landowners plan for succession to our next farmers and ranchers is pivotal to our society, leading to broad benefits for farm businesses, the elder generation’s legacy, the surrounding community, and the earth itself. I want to be at the forefront of that work.”  

Farms for a New Generation supports next-generation farmers and ranchers to gain access to land, steward it well, and succeed in agriculture. FNG strives to address the bottlenecks to opportunity that America’s next farmers and ranchers navigate every day, such as limited access to land and capital, a competitive disadvantage, soaring land prices, and other economic pressures. Valliant’s passion to tackle these problems and advance the country’s responses on behalf of our next farmers motivates her the most.  

“Our focus is always on those who are called to work the land as their vocation,” said Valliant. “We know that there is no shortage of America’s next farmers and ranchers – they just face steep barriers to opportunity, entry, and success. So, we focus on overcoming those barriers by instead increasing access to opportunity for the country’s next farmers and ranchers, and our country’s level of investment in them.” 

Valliant has spent much of her career in the farmland access and transfer space. Prior to joining AFT, she served as a research scientist with Indiana University where she focused on up-and-coming farmers as they worked to access and afford land bases for their businesses, and navigate secure tenure, home, and community. She also learned from elder landholders approaching their legacies through succession, transfer, and estate; from heirs; and from advisors, policymakers, advocates, and service providers who step forward to support people as they transfer land from one to the next. 

Indiana University honored her with its first ever Food and Agrarian Systems Program Domestic Research Impact Award. Valliant holds doctoral and master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia. She and her family reside in Indiana near her parents’ farm and forest land. 

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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.