Our Mission
Oregon Agricultural Trust (OAT) is a statewide, agricultural land trust that partners with farmers and ranchers to protect ag lands for the benefit of Oregon’s economy, communities, landscapes—and craft beverage industry!
Cheers to the Land was started as an awareness campaign to highlight the importance of protecting Oregon’s rich and productive farmland, which is being lost at an alarming rate.
Each year, OAT invites brewers from around the state to create specialty beverages with ingredients grown on Oregon farms, as a way to support Oregon farmers and the critical work of protecting their land.
About 25% of Oregon is agricultural lands. That’s 16 million acres of agricultural lands that support not only farmers and ranchers, but also the food and beverage industry, rural communities, migratory corridors, fish and wildlife habitat, and soils that hold the potential to sequester carbon and mitigate climate change.
Yet the future of this land is under threat. Between just 2017-2022 alone, Oregon lost 4% of its agricultural land as a result of fragmentation and development.
As a statewide nonprofit and an accredited land trust, OAT partners with farmers and ranchers to permanently protect agricultural land through conservation easements and advocacy efforts—keeping ag land For Ag. Forever.
This is more important now than ever before, as land loss is expected to accelerate during the next wave of intergenerational transfers. The average age of Oregon farmers and ranchers is 60, yet 81% lack a succession plan and many do not have successors at all. Their land is more likely to be sold, fragmented and developed—impacting rural livelihoods and communities, the food system, and climate resilience.