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Teaming up to protect U.S. farmland  

American Farmland Trust is teaming up with Smithfield Brand, Farmland to protect U.S. farmland and ranchland.

Ryan Lauer is the corporate partnership manger with American Farmland Trust.

“American Farmland Trust has been in the farm preservation world for over 30 years,” he says. “Farmland brand saw the alarming rate at which we are losing farmland. It’s critical to their business and it’s critical to the future of our ability to feed ourselves that we have farmland now and into the future.”

Now through Dec. 31, 2019, the Smithfield brand says it will protect one square foot of U.S. farmland for every Farmland item purchased.

Lauer says Farmland will then donate that money to American Farmland Trust to further its mission.

“That’s going to quickly add up, we hope, to a meaningful amount of farmland preservation that’s going to happen throughout the U.S.,” he says.

In its latest report, American Farmland Trust found that U.S. farmland is being lost to conversion at a rate of 3 acres per minute.

Lauer says the partnership is just one of the ways AFT is preserving farmland.

AFT, the organization responsible for the No Farms, No Food movement, protects farmland, promotes sound farming practices and helps keep farmers on the land.

Smithfield brand, Farmland was found in 1959. Products include bacon, sausage, hot dogs, and more.

Audio: Ryan Lauer, American Farmland Trust