Since March is Women’s History Month, I’ve been asked to write and speak to my experience as a woman farmer. It’s an intriguing intersection of identity in a male dominated field. As women gain representation in farming, it opens up the industry to a more feminine perspective. We see parallels between the life giving power of the land and our own bodies. We’re born nurturers (most of us). We recognize and respect the cycles of life and land differently. The male perspective, which has ruled the agricultural industry to date, is shortsighted and focused on profit, dominance over nature, and eradicating anything (or anyone who) gets in the way. These ideologies fail to consider a holistic vision of the interwoven ecologies involved. They blindly praise themselves for being able to produce the highest yields of corn and beans, but fail to consider the soil erosion, chemical run-off, water contamination, or colony collapse disorder in their “feeding the world” calculations. That corn did not grow in isolation. We need to look at the whole picture. In my experience, women widen the perspective. We ask a lot of questions… and that’s a good thing!

~Joy