Planting Trees on Farms
The Agroforestry Coalition’s Efforts are Taking Root
The tree line at the edge of Jóia Food and Fiber Farm is an agroforestry practice that helps prevent soil erosion.
At Jóia Food and Fiber Farm in Northeast Iowa, thousands of trees and shrubs line the fields and pastures. There are oaks, sycamores, wild plum, hickories, elderberries, apricots, apples, and more. Farmer Wendy Johnson started planting the trees in 2019 in response to severe flooding and erosion and to create a better habitat for her sheep and cattle.
“We asked, ‘how can we become more resilient in increasing times of volatility and continue to be viable as a farm?’” Johnson explains. “Perennials [which grow year after year] are the answer, and trees are a perfect perennial. They also provide a nut or a fruit or lumber or shade – all these attributes that fit so perfectly with the farm that we’re building.”
Incorporating trees onto farmland, a collective of practice known as agroforestry, has been implemented for thousands of years. But in the last century, it has fallen out of use in the U.S. in the pursuit of maximizing agricultural yields. Farmers like Johnson and groups like The Agroforestry Coalition (AFC) hope to increase agroforestry adoption and spread its benefits for farmers, economic resilience, climate change, and the land. Recently, AFC, Johnson, and farmers from every state in the nation sent a letter outlining the benefits of agroforestry and diversification to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.
“While America's food and agriculture industry is among the most productive in the world, our farms and rural communities today are also vulnerable,” the letter states. “Diversifying farming systems is a key lever that addresses farm profitability and opportunity, diet-related disease, and declining rural populations.”
“Trees are really necessary in terms of protecting soils from wind erosion and water erosion and helping cool the land down,” Johnson says.
But it’s not as simple as just planting more trees.
“Our measure of success isn’t how many trees we get in the ground but how many are alive at the end of ten years,” says Kitt Healy, strategy director and lead organizer for AFC, “which means building supportive systems to help farmers be successful in the long-term.”
For example, agroforestry requires a deep knowledge of how “perennial crops play into the broader ecosystem,” explains Healy. “It requires thoughtful design that fits each unique environment – which is how a lot of farmers farm – but it’s higher stakes because it takes longer to establish perennials than to plant, harvest and replace annual crops."
Johnson didn’t have sufficient support when she first implemented an agroforestry practice called silvopasture, where trees are planted in pastures. “There wasn’t a lot of information or any practical information,” she recalls. She was sent to a forester who advised her to plant the wrong trees in the wrong place.
AFC was created out of a desire to holistically address the many barriers that limit the spread of agroforestry. The group launched after a 2022 retreat of agroforestry leaders hosted by the Volgenau Climate Initiative (VCI). VCI seeks to positively impact our climate and related ecological systems and our relationship with the land through improved practices, policies, and investments.
“The Agroforestry Coalition is making exciting progress both on the ground and on policy," says Mario Molino, VCI’s Executive Director. "It's a shining example of what's possible when you bring together highly talented individuals from diverse organizations to work towards innovative and collaborative strategies for impact."
Kitt Healy (left) discussing agroforestry with practitioners during VCI retreat in Abiquiu, New Mexico in September, 2024
AFC is a network of agroforestry advocates, practitioners, experts, and innovators. It includes eight working groups that focus on various approaches to support agroforestry, such as communications, demonstration farms, ecosystem services, finance, markets, nurseries, policy, and technical assistance and training.
Relationships are at the heart of this work. “The issues we face are complex, and there are people who are working on different pieces in really powerful ways,” explains Healy. “We believe that connecting people across agroforestry and adjacent fields will accelerate collaboration and yield novel solutions to persistent barriers to agroforestry adoption.”
For example, AFC recently helped convene a group of innovative finance and market development leaders with the Harvard Food Policy and Law Clinic to launch a research project aimed at making a case for expanded crop insurance to cover agroforestry plantings. Crop insurance helps producers weather the volatile nature of farming, providing compensation at times of drought, disease, and floods. Currently, many agroforestry crops don’t receive the same protection. In the long term, this research could help farmers feel more secure growing different crops.
There are many people and organizations working within or close to agroforestry. “The Coalition is important because it provides overall ecosystem coordination” between these many players, Healy says. It “acts as a communication and coordination conduit.”
Since 2022, VCI has organized two additional agroforestry retreats and AFC has continued to grow and refine their mission. In 2023, the group published a white paper on the merits of agroforestry and suggested policy priorities. In April 2024, they organized a fly-in to advocate for the widespread adoption of agroforestry to U.S. legislators. And in November 2024, policy advocates from the Coalition were able to get agroforestry included with the proposed conservation title of the Senate Farm Bill, though the future passage of the omnibus legislation remains uncertain.
After the latest retreat, Coalition members began drafting a letter to the new Secretary of Agriculture about the critical importance of diversifying agricultural production – the planting of different types of crops – to build economic and environmental resilience in America's food, fiber and energy supply. The unifying message is that diversification is good for business and the environment.
Over the course of one month, 750 farmers from all 50 states and Puerto Rico added their signatures to the letter.
The letter “showed the amount of support for diversification across the nation,” Johnson from Jóia Food and Fiber Farm adds. “It’s really important for the leaders of our country to know what is important to American farmers and why.”
“Farmers from all political parties care about their land and care about their businesses,” Healy adds. “It's rewarding to see this kind of initiative emerging from the Coalition, since we exist to foster collaboration and shift systems toward more economic and environmental resilience.”
AFC is continuing to grow. It is now composed of 250 individual members representing over 100 organizations. This year, they are planning to reach 300 members. What’s most exciting is that many of the working groups are creating subgroups that are pointing toward more results in the field with direct impact on the land and in the lives and livelihoods of farmers, Healy says.
