WOMEN'S RESPONSES to gender and race disparities in the food system, farming and health and the absence of women producers and leaders in farming  

1% of the world's landowners are women

"If women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased and the number of hungry people reduced by 100-150 million."  

- FAO 2010-2011 Report

"A combination of logistical, cultural, and economic factors, coupled with a lack of gender statistics in the agricultural sector, means that agricultural programs are rarely designed with womens needs in mind. As a result, African women farmers have no voice in the development of agricultural policies designed to improve their productivity." - Lindiwe Majele Sibanda 

Women in agriculture in the United States are an important, diverse, and often overlooked component of food systems. Recently there has been a growing acknowledgement of the important roles women play on farms. However, the fact remains that the commercial agricultural realm within the US is still hugely dominated by a white male workforce that is traditionally in charge of decision-making and operation.

Consequently, both white and non-white women are at a disadvantage, as they lack access to resources and the network required for the capital-intensive work of conventional farming. As of 2002, only about 5% of commercial farms in the US were operated by women, according to the National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS).

The 2007 Census of Agriculture shows that women have a growing presence in U.S. agriculture. Women are running more farms and ranches, operating more land, and producing a greater value of agricultural products than they were five years ago. Women are now the principal operators of 14 percent of the nations 2.2 million farms.

HELPFUL LINKS:

Women's Organizations:

Hattie Carthan Women Security Conference

La Finca del Sur

Plate to Politics

BKFarmyards

Eagle Street Rooftop Farms

East New York Farms

Navdanya International

More Information on Women in Agriculture:

Eco-Feminism: An Overview
Lois Ann Lorentzen, University of San Francisco & Heather Eaton, Saint Paul University

Vandana Shiva: Lecture
In this lecture at Michigan State University, environmental activist, author, and eco-feminist Vandana Shiva talks about her environmental activism. Rooted in a discussion of environmental struggles in her home country of India, Shiva expands her discussion by placing environmental activism into a larger context of globalization and capitalism. Shiva offers an interesting critique of market defined "sustainability" before moving into a lengthy discussion of corporate attempts--such as those by Monsanto and Coca-Cola--to privatize water.

Women Farmers Litigation
Current Information on Love vs. Vilsack

Women Farmers Feed the World

In West Africa, women's resistance to the new Green Revolution shows that the question of agricultural sustainability is also a question of equality. - Christa Hillstrom, Yes Magazine