Mission & Values
Mission
The mission of Connecticut Farmland Trust is to preserve Connecticut farmland for current and future generations of farmers.
Our Values
HONESTY & ACCOUNTABILITY
We prioritize honesty, integrity, and fiscal responsibility in all our work, and seek to provide excellent service in all that we do. This goes hand in hand with learning about and acknowledging the truth that our work has benefited some and not others; historic injustice has affected CFT’s work in farmland preservation.
We take responsibility for doing better, understanding that we have both expertise to offer and a lot to learn, especially when it comes to understanding racism and its impact in farmland preservation.
RESPONSIVENESS
We value our relationships with landowners, farmers, and farm families, and work hard to understand and support their individual conservation and farming needs.
JUSTICE & EQUITY
We believe that diversity in all facets of the agricultural economy in CT is integral to its success. We work to protect farmland across farm sizes, commodity types, and geographic distribution, and to support diverse groups of farmers of all ages, races, ethnicities, and genders.
We strive to create equitable access to land, with a focus on those, especially farmers of color and beginning farmers, who have historically been excluded from farm ownership in CT.
INNOVATION & RISK TAKING
We strive to approach our organizational work and mission with creativity, flexibility, and resourcefulness, and to find new and innovative tools and partnerships to achieve our farmland protection and access goals. This will require taking risks and leaning into discomfort to build inclusive and equitable programs and transform our organization.
BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS & COMMUNITY
We understand that keeping farming viable is intertwined with issues such as affordable housing, sustainable development, and health and wellness. We will need new partnerships to address these overlapping issues and to respond to the changing faces and scale of farming in CT.
This requires developing empathy for others' experiences and building trust and accountability with new potential partners. We commit to developing new ways of being together, bridging differences, and connecting to each other's humanity.