Glynwood gets results. In advancing our mission of helping communities in the Northeast to save farming, here are some of the accomplishments we look back on with pride.

• Conducted programs in more than 125 communities, helping them save farming, protect natural resources, and enhance economic well-being.

• Published a highly regarded report on The State of Agriculture in the Hudson Valley, which for the first time documented and quantified the importance of agriculture in the valley and the urgent need to take action to save farmland and support farming.

• Jump-started a long-stalled initiative in the Hudson Valley town of Chatham NY to create a town Master Plan with provisions for supporting agriculture, which has spurred the effort to establish a property-transfer tax fund for the protection of farmland.

• Forged an unprecedented Northeast region-wide task force composed of leaders whose expertise includes farming, food distribution, the livestock industry, finance, and the law. in an ongoing initiative to remedy the region’s urgent need for humane and high quality slaughterhouses.

• Convened the nation’s leading land trusts to focus on how protected but fallow farmland could be put back into production, which led to a major Glynwood report that has resulted in a wide range of land trusts finding ways to return land to farming.

• Collaborated with the American Planning Association to promote “Smart Ag” as a complement to Smart Growth, resulting in a realization among planners of how farmland is much more than “vacant land waiting for its best and final use.”

• Created the annual Glynwood Harvest Awards to identify and celebrate cutting-edge work being done across the nation to support sustainable agriculture and diversify regional and local food systems—which inspires people to take action in their own communities.

• Trained more than 300 local leaders in the Hudson Valley, helping them manage local decision-making more effectively and resulting in some of New York State’s first inter-municipal agreements for consistent management of natural resources.

• Convened a workshop for Hudson Valley farmers to encourage regional branding of farm products, which led directly to the creation of successful new businesses marketing local products.

• Spearheading an initiative in ex-urban Rockland NY to bring back farming—in particular by opening land owned by parks, land trusts, colleges and other institutions.

• Generated creation of the not-for-profit Farm Catskills! which followed through on our recommendation to create a “Pure Catskills” brand, resulting in more effective marketing of the region’s farm produce.

• Guided the town of Goshen NY in a successful effort to reverse opposition to farmland preservation and agri-economic development, which led to a $5 million bond and $1 million in Orange County funding, resulting in immediate preservation of two large farms and a fund for future farmland protection.

• Forged the Mohawk River Community Partners of Colonie NY, a not-for-profit, which is planning and implementing projects for conservation and management of the Mohawk River.

• Spurred the depressed former coal-mining town of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania to plan for and obtain millions of dollars in grants to preserve downtown buildings and attract new business, which is leading the town’s renaissance.

• Proposed a land swap in Prince Peter’s Bay on Prince Edward Island that effectively reversed plans for development of a fragile ecosystem of coastal wetlands and dunes, leading to their incorporation into Prince Edward Island National Park.

• Glynwood partnered with Farm Aid, a national organization that supports family farms through their annual concert and other activities, to provide immediate disaster assistance to several counties in New York that were declared federal and state disaster areas after extreme rain and flooding in 2006. Some farmers lost 80 to 90% of their crops while others lost virtually all of their top soil and animals to extreme flooding and related illnesses. Farm Aid made $7,800 available for small grants that Glynwood distributed to New York farmers who needed help paying for food, clothing, utility bills, and other necessities of life.

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