A profound shift is occurring among women working in agriculture-they are increasingly seeing themselves asfarmers, not only as the wives or daughters of farmers. The authors draw on more than a ...decade of research to document and analyze the reasons for the transformation. As their sense of identity changes, many female farmers are challenging the sexism they face in their chosen profession. In this book, farm women in the northeastern United States describe how they got into farming and became successful entrepreneurs despite the barriers they encountered in agricultural institutions, farming communities, and even their own families. Their strategies for obtaining land and labor and developing successful businesses offer models for other aspiring farmers.Pulling down the barriers that women face requires organizations and institutions to become informed by what the authors call a feminist agrifood systems theory (FAST). This framework values women's ways of knowing and working in agriculture: emphasizing personal, economic, and environmental sustainability, creating connections through the food system, and developing networks that emphasize collaboration and peer-to-peer education. The creation and growth of a specific organization, the Pennsylvania Women's Agricultural Network, offers a blueprint for others seeking to incorporate a feminist agrifood systems approach into agricultural programming. The theory has the potential to shift how farmers, agricultural professionals, and anyone else interested in farming think about gender and sustainability, as well as to change how feminist scholars and theorists think about agriculture.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2002.
eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 204-216).
Tilling the Soil for Change Kiernan, Nancy Ellen; Barbercheck, Mary; Terman, Anna Rachel ...
The Rise of Women Farmers and Sustainable Agriculture,
05/2016
Book Chapter
Natalie Ingram and her husband produce organic grain crops on more than 1,300 acres. Even though Natalie considers herself a farmer, she is concerned that within the agricultural community, the women ...who farm with their husbands are not seen asbeingfarmers. She describes attending numerous agricultural meetings where men are perceived as farmers and women are viewed as “just the farmer’s wife.” Shortly before her interview with us, she had read a report from a recent pasture management meeting that she had attended. She was livid at how women were portrayed and expressed her frustration: “Kathy a fellow woman
A New Crop Kiernan, Nancy Ellen; Barbercheck, Mary; Terman, Anna Rachel ...
The Rise of Women Farmers and Sustainable Agriculture,
05/2016
Book Chapter
The face of farming in the US is changing, and it is with increasing frequency that the farmer’s face belongs to a woman. Across the nation, women are breaking new ground in agriculture by responding ...to renewed interests in the agrifood system with innovations in farming and by marketing farm products. The number of women farmers has increased at a phenomenal rate in recent years, and they now comprise 30% of farm operators in the US, a 19% increase from 2002 to 2007 (USDA 2009b).¹ The Census of Agriculture distinguishes between principal farm operator and other farm operators, and it
FUNDING SOURCES Kiernan, Nancy Ellen; Barbercheck, Mary; Terman, Anna Rachel ...
The Rise of Women Farmers and Sustainable Agriculture,
05/2016
Book Chapter
Reaping a New Harvest Kiernan, Nancy Ellen; Barbercheck, Mary; Terman, Anna Rachel ...
The Rise of Women Farmers and Sustainable Agriculture,
05/2016
Book Chapter
Women farmers have responded to the barriers to farming described in the previous chapter—including limited access to the land, labor, and capital they need to farm—with innovative strategies that ...emphasize smaller farm scales, diversified high-value and value-added products and enterprises, unique marketing strategies, and sustainable practices. For example, many women farmers produce a diverse array of crops and livestock to provide multiple opportunities for revenue. Many women farmers are using creative (and often multiple) marketing strategies, including direct marketing approaches such as community-supported agriculture, farmers’ markets, on-farm markets, collaborative marketing, and online marketing.
These innovations are creative responses
Constructing a New Table Kiernan, Nancy Ellen; Barbercheck, Mary; Terman, Anna Rachel ...
The Rise of Women Farmers and Sustainable Agriculture,
05/2016
Book Chapter
Educational and social organizations are critical in empowering farmers to gain access to resources, in building rural social capital, in helping farmers to gain skills, information, and markets, and ...in increasing farmers’ voices in public sector decision-making (Penunia 2011). Many women involved in agriculture find that the established avenues, organizations, and networks that male farmers use to access educational and technical resources are less accessible or even irrelevant to women farmers (Hassanein 1997). While there are many agricultural organizations and institutions that could help women farmers gain access to the information and resources that they need, many organizations have not
