For much of its history, American Farmland Trust has provided broad support to the growing agricultural land protection community, whether through regional events and national conferences, cutting-edge research and communications insights, or technical expertise and policy innovation.
In 2020, American Farmland Trust launched the National Agricultural Land Network, or NALN, to further strengthen the collective capacity of public agencies, planning entities, and land trusts working to protect agricultural land.
The NALN is designed to grow the capacity and momentum needed to elevate the cause of agricultural land protection across America.
Gain professional networking and support as an organization/entity or individual directly engaged in retaining and protecting agricultural land. There is no cost for membership; however, some select services, programing, or events may require a fee.
If you are a farmer or an aspiring farmer and looking for information about farmland protection or accessing land, please visit AFT’s Farmland Information Center.
NALN Products and Services
The NALN engages members in various ways. Explore the tabs below to see member benefits.
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Who Are NALN Members?
The NALN seeks to provide a high level of professional networking and support to organizations/entities and individuals directly engaged in retaining and protecting agricultural land and those whose programs, services, or public policy advocacy help to advance agricultural land protection and planning. The NALN is a learning and knowledge exchange network that offers policy education and updates but will not promote or take positions on specific legislation.
We welcome organizational members such as public Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easement programs, private land trusts, and state and county government or quasi-governmental agencies with jurisdiction over agriculture, conservation, and/or planning. Other eligible organizational members include farm and conservation organizations, coalitions, trade associations, and service providers.
We also welcome individuals not affiliated with an organizational member whose work is focused on advancing agricultural land retention and protection. Individual members may be researchers, planners, legislators, public agency staff, nonprofit organization staff, or individuals serving on public or nonprofit boards and committees addressing agricultural land retention and protection aspects.
National Agricultural Land Network (NALN) Membership comprises 1,513 organizations, organization staff, and individuals. See a list of organizational members in your state (as of 5/21/2025) here.
Membership is free; however, some select services, programming, or events may require a fee. Organizational members directly engaged in agricultural land protection or planning may receive preference for certain workshops and events where participation may be limited.
If you are a farmer or an aspiring farmer and looking for information about farmland protection or accessing land, please visit AFT’s Farmland Information Center.
Soil Health Stewards Program: Promoting Soil Health on Protected Agricultural Lands
Beginning in 2021, AFT's National Agricultural Land Network, with other AFT national initiative teams and funding from NRCS, developed a curriculum to engage 125 land protection practitioners in the basics of soil health and soil health practices. AFT’s Soil Health Stewards Program is an ambitious national effort to engage and support agricultural land protection practitioners in promoting soil health practices with the farmers, ranchers, and others who own and manage permanently protected agricultural land—and on the agricultural land their agency or organization owns. The program focuses on the more than 6 million acres of permanently protected farms and ranches across the United States, recognizing the lasting impact that soil health improvements on this land will provide.
Learn MoreFREE Soil Health Webinar Series
Attend this webinar series for a short course version of the program to learn why soil health is inspiring farmers and their service providers nation-wide.
We will highlight soil health basics, the economic benefits of soil health practices, and strategies to encourage better soil health as part of agricultural conservation easement acquisitions and stewardship. This is a FREE series and attending all three is not mandatory. While we are requiring registration for each webinar separately, we have kept the registration form short and sweet. Thank you for understanding.
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Saving America’s Working Lands National Conference
SAVING AMERICA’S WORKING LANDS, a national conference hosted by American Farmland Trust, focused on the threatened and irreplaceable land that America relies upon to grow food, fiber, and fuel, provide critical environmental benefits, and sustain rural communities and agricultural economies.
SAVING AMERICA’S WORKING LANDS was intended to meet the growing demand for cutting-edge information about protecting and retaining U.S. agricultural land. Designed for new and seasoned conservation practitioners, agriculture industry representatives and service providers, researchers, planners, policymakers, farmers, and ranchers, the conference featured three days of workshops, field trips, discussion groups, and conference sessions that elevated successes and responded to practitioner needs for approaches to save the land that sustains us.
Those who attended SAVING AMERICA’S WORKING LANDS deepened their knowledge of agricultural land protection tools, discussed emerging issues and trends, and explored and elevate new ideas and strategies to save America’s working lands.
SAVING AMERICA’S WORKING LANDS offered space for learning, networking, exploring, and celebrating together.
Explore the Series
Farms Under Threat Webinar Series
The NALN hosted two webinar series exploring findings from American Farmland Trust’s Farms Under Threat reports.
The first series, “Farms Under Threat: State of the States” looked at spatial and policy scorecard findings for 38 states and talked through tools available through this report to help planners, land protection practitioners, policymakers, and advocates strengthen and expand agricultural land retention and protection efforts.
In the summer of 2022, AFT followed up with a second series focused on 35 states from AFT's report "Farms Under Threat: 2040". We looked at the spatial data and development scenarios and talked about how this data will be helpful to planners, land protection practitioners, policymakers, and advocates as they strengthen and expand agricultural land retention and protection efforts.
