American Farmland Trust Announces Dr. Beth Sauerhaft Hired as Vice President for Programs

American Farmland Trust, the organization behind the national movement No Farms No Food®, has hired Dr. Beth Sauerhaft as vice president for programs. Beth will help lead AFT’s national initiatives that seek to protect farmland, combat climate change, conserve water, engage women landowners in improving environmental stewardship, support farm viability and bring a new generation of farmers on to the land.

This announcement comes at a time of strategic growth for AFT as it expands to address the alarming loss of farmland and ranchland revealed in its May 2018 report “Farms Under Threat: The State of America’s Farmland.” AFT is also ramping up its efforts to engage farmers and landowners in protecting water quality and combatting climate change, as well as to assist beginning farmers in accessing farmland and senior farmers in transferring their farms to a new generation.

Before joining AFT, Beth served in roles of increasing responsibility at PepsiCo, ultimately as senior director, corporate sustainability where she integrated social and environmental sustainability into PepsiCo’s innovation, budgetary and planning platform as well as piloted programs designed to make company agricultural supply chains more sustainable. As director, corporate global environmental sustainability, she pioneered policies and programs that integrated public health, nutrition, and environmental and agricultural sustainability initiatives to enhance corporate strategy and portfolio impact. And as senior manager, environmental stewardship, where among other responsibilities, she worked on sustainable agriculture and was a project board member for the World Economic Forum New Vision for Agriculture project where the focus was sustainable global food security.

Her agricultural background is extensive, serving as deputy to the counselor to the administrator for agricultural policy, USEPA; national ecological climatologist, USDA-NRCS and district conservationist, USDA-NRCS. Beth completed her undergraduate work at Grinnell College, earned her Master of Environmental Management at Duke and was awarded her doctorate in agroforestry/agroecology, Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management at Texas A&M where she did her research on the use of rainwater harvesting to grow tree and row crop agroforestry systems in the desert.

“AFT will benefit immensely from Beth’s expertise in sustainability, environmental stewardship and climate smart farming practices as we work to save the land that sustains us across America,” said John Piotti, AFT president and CEO.

Piotti continued, “We are incredibly pleased to have Beth joining AFT. She has tremendous experience from the private sector as well as with the United States Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency.  Beth also brings organizational leadership experience and is a talented speaker and thought leader.”

Dr. Sauerhaft will also work with David Haight, AFT’s other vice president for programs, and other staff to integrate the organization’s national initiatives with its regional programs currently in California, the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, New England, New York and the Pacific Northwest.

Beth will be based in Chappaqua, NY where she lives with her recently returned home son who graduated from Florida Tech in December and their two beagle pups.  In her “free” time, Beth co-chairs her county’s Climate Crisis Task Force, is active on local political campaigns, walks the pups, loves hiking and camping and helps care for her aging mom.

Beth shared her excitement in joining AFT, “Agriculture faces a lot of environmental challenges, AFT is ideally positioned to impact them and I’m thrilled to be joining the team at this time!”