Our "North Star"
Putting Farmers at the ForefrontSfL Guiding Principles
Farmers must be at the center of all agriculture and food discussions and decision-making; significant input will be needed from a wide range of farmer, indigenous communities and producer organizations outside of established policymaking structures.
There is no “silver bullet” solution for enhancing the resilience of agriculture and food systems: policymakers must embrace farmer centric systems approaches that recognizes the tremendous diversity of agricultural landscapes and ecosystems and enables producers to utilize the systems and practices that best support their farming operations.
Science-based decision making, in conjunction with farmer and indigenous innovation, must be the foundation for the adoption of agricultural smart technologies and practices in the production of sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, ecosystem well being and food and nutrition security.
Since crops, livestock and production forestry dominate the world’s land area, agricultural systems must be advanced that increase both production and production efficiency per unit of land and water; meet the food and nutrition needs of the future; and greatly enhance ecosystem health by regenerating soils, watersheds, habitats and biodiversity at scale.
All tools in the toolbox approaches appropriate to geographies, ecosystems and watersheds, cultures and a wide variety of agricultural/forestry types and scales should be considered in the effort to achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations outcomes, without predetermining technologies, production type or design components.
Adaptation strategies will require system approaches that utilize a combination of improved efficiency, substitution (e.g. new crop varieties and breeds), and redesign/system transformation to reflexively respond to continuous short- and long-term changes in weather and climate patterns and impacts on cultivated and natural ecosystem conditions.
Context-specific priorities and solutions must be aligned with national policies and priorities, be determined based on the social, economic, and environmental conditions at site (including the diversity in type and scale of agricultural activity), and be subject to evaluation of potential synergies, tradeoffs, and net benefits.
Reconstructing War-Ravaged Agricultural Lands and Waters
Guiding Principles to Achieve Food and nutrition security, soil and water functions
Our Work
Today, SfL continues to build and facilitates state, national, and global initiatives and alliances through which farmers, ranchers, foresters and collaborating partners showcase examples of innovation and proactively advocate for policies, partnerships, investments, and research that will enable agricultural landscapes to deliver near-term, cost-effective, integrated solutions to global mega-challenges: food and energy security; sustainable economic development; and environmental improvement.
Click on a platform below to learn more.
Domestic Platform
SfL is currently engaged in a national program of sustainability advocacy by sharing the findings of its established state CSA network and leaders.
Global Platform
Though support from its partners, SfL is educating parties in international forums on proven, pragmatic, profitable climate change solutions U.S. agriculture can deliver at a landscape scale.
The SfL Network
