AFT Promotes Jenny Lester Moffitt to Vice President, Farmland Protection and Strategic Priorities

(Washington, DC) American Farmland Trust has promoted Jenny Lester Moffitt to Vice President, Farmland Protection and Strategic Priorities, where she will lead a national effort to safeguard America’s working lands now and into the future.

Moffitt will unite AFT’s farmland protection, information, and capacity-building initiatives; strengthen the National Agricultural Land Network and Farmland Information Center; and expand conservation easements, land transfers, and public-private partnerships. She will also work to ensure that farmland remains in the hands of farmers and ranchers, communities thrive, and the nation’s food system grows more resilient in the face of economic and climate pressures.

Moffitt will continue to provide leadership for Thriving Farms and Ranches, a collaborative initiative through public and private partners that will strengthen rural communities, sustain farming practices, and help farmers and ranchers secure land tenure. In addition, she hopes to grow AFT’s work to keep farmers on the land by advancing market opportunities for producers.

“I am honored to take on this role and help expand American Farmland Trust’s efforts to protect farmland and ensure that farmers and ranchers have the opportunity to thrive for generations to come,” said Moffitt. “As a farmer and longtime advocate for working lands, I know how much farmland protection matters to the people and communities who depend on it.”

Moffitt grew up working on her family’s California organic walnut farm, where she later served as Managing Director for 10 years. Growing up on the farm taught her first-hand the importance of taking care of the land and the people who farm it, as well as implementing sound farming practices.

Prior to joining AFT in 2025, Moffitt served as USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs. She was the first woman to serve in this position, where she provided leadership for both the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), to build a more reliable, resilient, and equitable food system by strengthening agricultural markets and ensuring the health and welfare of animals and plants.

Prior to her appointment at USDA, Moffitt served as Undersecretary and then Deputy Secretary at the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

“We are thrilled that Jenny will grow and make an even greater impact at AFT, especially in strengthening the resilience of America’s farms and ranches and the rural communities they are part of,” said AFT President and CEO John Piotti. “There is no doubt that the combination of her personal experience working on her family’s farm and commitment to the mission of saving the land that sustains us will boost AFT to even greater heights.”

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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.