The Nature Conservancy Agriculture Program

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is one of the world’s largest and most influential conservation organizations, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Its Agriculture Program represents a major strategic initiative to work with farmers, landowners, and food companies to transform agricultural practices at scale, recognizing that farming occupies roughly 40 percent of Earth’s land surface and is a primary driver of biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and water quality degradation. TNC’s agricultural work focuses on promoting practices that protect and restore natural ecosystems while maintaining food production, including the conservation of native grasslands, wetlands, and forests within or adjacent to farmland. The organization works extensively on water quality improvement, supporting the adoption of cover crops, buffer strips, and nutrient management practices that reduce agricultural runoff into rivers and waterways. TNC also develops and scales carbon farming programs, working with farmers to adopt practices that sequester soil carbon and generate verified carbon credits. It engages with major food companies and commodity supply chains to improve sustainability standards and increase investment in on-farm conservation. The organization conducts and publishes scientific research that informs both farmer practice and agricultural policy, contributing to evidence-based decision-making on sustainable land use. TNC operates across the United States and internationally, making its Agriculture Program one of the most geographically extensive sustainable farming initiatives in the world.