Despite the urgent threats to the environment I’m working to solve at EDF, I know that it’s still not too late to leave a better world for future generations.
Your first gift will go three times as far to help my team enlist a powerful group of allies to protect the health of vast stretches of land across the country: America’s farmers.
Thinking back now on the first meeting I ever had with a group of farmers, I see how incredibly naïve I was.
It was 2002, and Congress had just passed a farm bill that included conservation funding. My boss said, “Suzy, we need to understand how these programs actually work on the ground. Go see what happens.” So I went to see.
Farmers know that outsiders don’t always come with good intentions. As a result, they can be skeptical and wary when someone like me — a city dweller from a D.C. environmental group — asks for a meeting.
But like I said — I’m an optimist.
I went in with good intentions, thinking, “This is going to be great,” and luckily, that must have come through to the farmers.
Afterwards, one of them came up to me and said, “You know, I wasn’t sure if I should bring a shotgun or a lawyer to this meeting, but I’m glad I didn’t bring either.” Nearly twenty years later, I’m proud to call that man a friend and partner.
That’s the power of EDF’s win-win approach to conservation. Your first gift will be matched $2-for-$1 to empower farmers to protect the health and beauty of millions of acres of land.
At EDF, negotiating — being willing to compromise — is not considered a weakness. That allows us to forge nontraditional partnerships and make things happen we otherwise couldn’t.
Crop insurance is a good example. It touches nearly every farmer so, if used to advance conservation, can have a huge impact. That’s led a lot of environmental groups to call for a mandate: Let’s make any farmer who wants access to crop insurance comply with conservation requirements.
But to a farmer, that can be a threatening approach that ends the conversation before it gets started — which gets you zero environmental progress.
So what we’ve chosen to do instead is use the data our farmer partners are collecting to show USDA how conservation can reduce risk, and persuade them that insurance should
reward farmers who choose to adopt those practices.
By letting farmers choose, we say two important things to them:
- First, we really believe that you can do good for the environment.
- Second, we really believe doing good for the environment will also do good for you, so we don’t want or need to take away your choice.
With that approach, we’ve actually recruited farmers who
want to work with us.
My work with America’s farmers is only possible thanks to the generous support of people like you. Please first to our year-end campaign before the opportunity to triple your impact expires.
Thank you for your generous support.
Suzy Friedman
Senior Director, Agricultural Sustainability
