Welcome
Whether putting on our mud boots and meeting the Ayers Brook goats who are the start of building quality goat dairy herds in Vermont, or, tasting different lettuces developed by High Mowing Seeds, partnering to develop sustainable MBA courses, or seeing the wonder in a child’s eyes as they see seeds they planted become carrots they can eat, we Trustees of the Lydia B. Stokes Foundation are engaged and having fun as we learn about the people, the lands, and the relationships in which we are involved. So many opportunities now exist to support the emergence of a new paradigm, a Sufficiency economy, and it is exciting to see our Mission expressed ever more clearly in both our grants and our investments.
Our Mission
The Lydia B. Stokes Foundation is committed to the Quaker philosophy of peace and justice. The Foundation supports building resilient, healthy communities by focusing on social and economic justice, regenerative organic agriculture, viable, healthy ecosystems, quality of life issues, development of local food systems, local energy security and peace initiatives.
This vision of interconnected Life and Living Values directs our grant making and drives our investment decisions.

Soil Not Oil
Humans have severely disrupted Nature’s balanced “carbon triad” of soil, atmosphere, and oceans by burning fossil fuels and using industrial agricultural practices that overload our planet’s systems.
20-30% of all the excess greenhouse gasses (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) heating up our planet come from fossil fuel dependent industrial agriculture, whether cows, corn, or strawberries.
Regenerative organic agriculture, including holistic planned grazing, sequesters excess carbon, potentially back to pre-industrial levels of 280 ppm, while expanding the soil’s water holding capacity, providing healthy, nutrient rich food and restoring diverse, healthy ecosystems. Holistic planned grazing restores grassland health and diversity, while sequestering carbon and methane. We must shift to diversified polycultures, practice holistic planned grazing and banish factory farms; we must change how we farm, ranch, and eat. Living soils are essential to life.
