This Year at the Farm

Dear Friend,

It’s hard to believe that Stone Barns Center is celebrating its 15^th year. I remember clearly the exciting planning process during which we engaged our local community and experts in the field of food and farming to dream up what this place could become. It was a fruitful, inspiring time that continues to pay off as we enter a new phase of development of the Stone Barns-Blue Hill relationship. We have demonstrated the power of bringing changemakers together to reimagine the food system over the past decade and a half, and look forward to continuing to set the standard for that work going forward.

2018 was an exceptional year at Stone Barns, and we are pleased to share the results with you here. We brought 350 acres of public lands under management using integrated livestock grazing, thanks to a partnership with the Rockefeller State Park Preserve. We welcomed high school teachers, farmer-entrepreneurs, and food system changemakers to the campus for training, enrichment and inspiration. We hosted our 11^th annual Young Farmers Conference and developed new academic and entrepreneurial partnerships that will help us amplify our influence on our ecosystem and our community.

Although we are proud of our work to date, we know that the challenges we face as a society and a globe demand more of us than ever before. At this moment of urgency to stem the worst effects of climate change, we are poised to scale our impact and address the greatest challenge of our time. Our board and team are enthusiastically embracing this imperative.

In collaboration with our partners at Blue Hill, Stone Barns Center is in the midst of a strategic planning process focused on bringing agriculture and gastronomy into even closer working relationship. We believe that reinventing this relationship across the entire food system will bring about new ways of eating, growing food and caring for soil that drive meaningful change in the face of the climate crisis. We look forward to sharing more details on this planning work with our community of supporters in the coming months.

On behalf of the Stone Barns board and staff, thank you to all of our thousands of members and donors for all you do to support this vision for a brighter food future.