By Lisa Kay Davis (DC’09)

Andrew S McElwaine.It’s a typical day for Andrew S. McElwaine (DC’98)—nonstop meetings with prominent D.C. lawmakers and lobbyists. It’s all part of his job as president of American Farmland Trust (AFT), the largest U.S. farmland protection group.

The conservation organization links farmers, conservationists, and policy-makers, which accounts for McElwaine’s nonstop meetings. AFT strives to protect farmland as well as promote sound farming practices. McElwaine is happy to report that, since its founding in 1980, AFT has helped to save more than 3 million acres of farmland and led the way for the adoption of conservation practices on millions more.

McElwaine (left)—who has more than 30 years of nonprofit experience in conservation, land protection, agriculture, and public policy—became president last July. He says his devotion to “conserving working and natural lands” is rooted in his childhood. Having grown up in the nation’s capital, he recalls witnessing, “the rolling agricultural communities, the open space, and the beauty of the area replaced with what I call ‘condo canyon.’ The major change in the landscape made me interested in conservation from an early age.”

With the world’s growing population, he believes “we’re probably going to have to increase the productivity of our existing land base by at least 50% in the next 20 years.”