Call it a chick thing. Call it too many episodes of “Little House on the Prairie” growing up. Call it a quest for crafting a livelihood around our inner female pioneer, wanting to create businesses around our passions for food, the land and leaving this world a better place. While the number of farms in the U.S. continues to decline overall, the number of farms purchased and run by women under 55 is on an upswing. With most of these new female farm ventures embracing sustainable agriculture principles — and many moving into farming after careers in other industries entirely — these chicks add a significant positive ripple into our food system, one organic, heirloom tomato at a time.
“Women farmers today are reinventing the face of organic agriculture,” explains Denise O’Brien, executive director of the Women in Food and Agriculture Network. “They’re focused on raising healthy food for their community and often sell their products through farmers’ markets or community supported agriculture initiatives.” Young women, such as Zoë Bradbury in Oregon, are ditching traditional career paths early on to go for their dreams of being a farmer and contributing to creating a local, healthy food system. Or these women may run diversified farm-based businesses, such as Marguerite Ramlow who runs Artha Sustainable Living Center from her farm in Wisconsin, conducting organic gardening, yoga, renewable energy and sustainable living workshops on-site.
Why this trend of women launching farm and food based businesses? A couple perspectives to chew on:
• No Glass Ceiling — Just Open Fields of Possibility
No matter how you slice it, various barriers and glass ceilings still exist for women in today’s traditional, corporate structure. That explains why women have been starting businesses at twice the national average rate for years. The growth of farming and farm-based businesses takes this independent, entrepreneurial idea to an even larger playing field as one can control even more of the business inputs and outputs by being in a rural setting. Don’t like being dependent on foreign oil? Put up a wind turbine and other renewable energy systems, like we did on our Wisconsin farm and B&B, Inn Serendipity.
• Bring the Kids Along
Farm businesses blend opportunity to involve kids in daily activities and responsibilities. From helping with animal and barn chores to getting ready for the farmers’ market, farms provides various ways to integrate and spend time with one’s children in an engaging, educational setting. Making change for customers at your market stand blows away any math text book when it comes to real-life experience. Our six-year old son, Liam, is in charge of gathering wood and prepping the evening campfire site we share with our B&B guests.
• Soul-Satisfying Work
Contributing to a healthier food system, fostering a healthier planet, leaving a better world for our children. Farms offers women a creative palette to bring one’s values to life on a daily basis, harvesting a satisfaction I know my former career life stranded in a cubicle working for someone else would never bring.
Lisa Kivirist
Lisa Kivirist embodies the growing “ecopreneuring” movement: innovative entrepreneurs who successfully blend business with making the world a better place. Lisa is co-author, with her husband, John Ivanko, of Rural Renaissance: Renewing the Quest for the Good Life, capturing the American dream of farm living for contemporary times. Her latest release, ECOpreneuring: Putting Purpose and the Planet Before Profits is a compact, dynamic tool kit for a fresh approach to entrepreneurial thinking, blending passion for protecting and preserving the planet with small business pragmatics. As a W.K. Kellogg Food & Society Policy Fellow and Director of the Rural Women's Project, Lisa champions a voice for women farmers and rural ecopreneurs through media, speaking and advocacy work. Lisa runs the award-winning Inn Serendipity Bed and Breakfast in southwest Wisconsin, completely powered by renewable energy and considered amongst the “Top Ten Eco-Destinations in North America.” Her culinary focus on local and seasonal cuisine – with most ingredients traveling less than 100 feet from her organic gardens to B&B plates – earned recognition in publications from Vegetarian Times to Country Woman and inspired her cookbook, Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity. In addition to feature writing for publications such as Hobby Farm Home, Mother Earth News and Wisconsin Trails, Lisa is the lead writer for Renewing the Countryside, a non-profit organization showcasing rural entrepreneurial and agricultural success stories. Lisa also penned Kiss Off Corporate America: A Young Professional’s Guide to Independence. Lisa shares her farm with her husband, their young son, a 10kw wind turbine and a colony of honeybees.
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These are interesting trends showing the power women have.
Since I believe progressives should have a sense of humor, here’s a humorous video my company, CrushedPlanet, made that highlights women ‘s power too. NO SEX FOR POLLUTERS! – http://youtube.com/watch?v=CxnqUszvaeA
this was a really inspiring post! i completely identify with the ‘too many episodes of little house on the pairie’ thing!!!! i do tend to romanticize the farm life based on that goofy show. thanks for the post. i know some women farmers and i admire them so much. i hope someday to join their ranks!