The Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) was founded in 1980 to protect local family farms and ranches from mounting development pressures and to preserve agriculture in Marin County. Since that time, we are proud to have conserved 59,028 acres of land, a growing network of protected farmland for the wellbeing of the entire Bay Area.
Since our founding, MALT has been a product of a tight-knit fabric of ranching families, partner organizations, and an invaluable community of supporters. It is only together that we are able to pursue our mission of protecting and stewarding Marin’s farmland to ensure the viability of agriculture and a healthy environment–now and forever. We have and always will be, in this together.
Despite our best intentions for building a more inclusive and thriving community, we recognize today that for much of our history our organization has viewed farmland protection separate from issues of equity and social justice. For too long we at MALT did not fully recognize that exclusion and forced displacement are part of the legacy of our agricultural system as well as the American conservation movement. It is past time to accept and acknowledge the realities of our collective history and work to expand MALT’s circle of inclusion.
We, at MALT, also understand that the past informs many of the inequities that persist today. Without properly recognizing the genocide, land theft, enslavement, and other injustices perpetuated against Indigenous, Black, Latine, Asian American and Pacific Islander as well as other marginalized peoples, we play a role in perpetuating them in the present. We share a story of race, power, and conflict that we must all strive to better understand and change.
Today, MALT is committed to advancing social and racial justice in all aspects of its mission. We believe that having an organization of diverse gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical ability, age, and other distinctions along with varied skills, perspectives and experiences, contributes to a balanced and effective nonprofit—one that is well-positioned to address the changing needs of the communities we serve.
To realize this vision for our community, we are committed to:
- Recruiting and retaining staff and board who reflect the diversity of the Bay Area
- Investing in policies and practices that advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice
- Building a workplace where marginalized people feel safe, valued, and heard — and rethinking practices that get in the way
- Shaping our land protection and stewardship work to open opportunities for marginalized communities
- Training staff and board to recognize bias and keep learning together
- Partnering with organizations led by and serving marginalized communities
- Holding ourselves accountable — learning from our mistakes and committing to do better