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Women at the Forefront of Organic and Sustainable Farming
by Pat Tanumihardja

Piles of red, green and yellow peppers are arranged by color; radishes, tomatoes, carrots and onions are carefully displayed; and the earthy scent of freshly dug produce permeates the air. Yes, spring is here and the weekly farmers markets are in full swing again. But have you ever paid attention to the farmers behind the stands touting their mottled heirloom tomatoes, or the person selecting the freshest asparagus for you to take home, or who might be giving you tips on how to cook fragile pea shoots? Scan the market stands and you’ll realize that you’re more likely to meet Ms. Farmer than Mr. Farmer.

Marcia Ostrom, associate professor and director of Washington State University’s (WSU) Small Farms Program, hazards a guess that about 90 percent of farmers market stands throughout the state are managed by women.

Across the country, women farmers comprise a growing share of farm operators and owners. From 1978 to 1997, the proportion of women reported as principal farm operators grew from 5 percent to 9 percent. In 2002, 11 percent of U.S. farms reported having a woman as the principal operator. Washington has a higher percentage of woman-operated farms than the national average. In Washington, the number of women operators on farms increased from 5,379 (13 percent) in 1997 to 5,632 (15.7 percent) in 2002.

“Organics in general is something new, and being a more liberal field, has always been more open to women,” says Diane Dempster, vice president of Tilth Producers. This explains why there have always been more women in organic than conventional farming.

AT THE FOREFRONT OF ORGANIC AND SUSTAINABLE FARMING

Not only do more women own and operate their own farms today, they are also more likely than men to practice sustainable and organic farming methods. A 2001 study by the Women on U.S. Farms Research Initiative at Pennsylvania State University concluded that women as principal farm operators are generally less likely to employ chemical intensive practices and to use sustainable agriculture practices instead. Rebecca Slattery, 44, has employed sustainable practices at Persephone Farm in Indianola, Wash. since 2001. She believes that women comprise about 75 percent of the organic and sustainable farming industry in Washington. Says Ostrom: “Look at sustainable agricultural organizations and where the leadership is. By and large … they are led by women.”

Two of these women are Susan Ujcic and her business partner Annie Salafsky, who run one of Washington’s oldest and largest organic community-supported agriculture farms. CSA farms typically sell “shares” of their season’s produce to individual subscribers. In 1991, Helsing Junction Farm started with 75 members and a seven-acre plot by the Chehalis River in Rochester. Today, the 50-acre farm has 700 members and $375,000 in gross annual sales.

Anne Schwartz, 52, of Skagit Valley’s Blue Heron Farm in Rockport, has been a member of Tilth Producers of Washington (a nonprofit alliance of organic growers) since 1979, and president for the past 13 years. Together with a group of like-minded farmers, she was among the pioneers to start and administer organic certification standards.

“It was easier for women to come into a different type of agriculture (i.e., organic) than the agriculture colleges were teaching,” says Schwartz. “In organic farming, everyone was considered a wacko, whether man or woman.”

There are also a lot more opportunities for non-farming entrants in organics, says Schwartz, who was drawn into organic farming when she met Gene Kahn, founder of Cascadian Farms, in 1979. A graduate in animal biology, Schwartz, like many women farmers in the market today, had a non-agricultural background and did not come from a traditional farming family.

Today, women, especially young women, are joining the industry in droves.

Ostrom reports that women make up at least half of the attendees at Tilth classes on sustainable and organic farming and agricultural entrepreneurship for small farmers. “There’s definitely a high interest among women farmers in sustainable and organic farming and alternative and direct-marketing techniques,” she says.

Furthermore, she sees disproportionately more young women (than men) signing up for her department’s Cultivating Success (cultivatingsuccess.org) apprenticeship program and also for the Ecological Agriculture program at The Evergreen State College. “These young women are seeing farming as their career from the start. They’re getting the training for it; they’re spending years taking classes, getting an undergrad degree related to agriculture, and apprenticing year after year on a farm they want to learn about.”

Holly Foster, 33, is a graduate of the Cultivating Success program. Foster was planning to attend graduate school to pursue a career in academia before her stints in farming communities in Scotland, Australia and Chatham, New York sidetracked her. Today, she runs five-year-old Zestful Gardens in Tacoma with her mother, Valerie, and she hasn’t looked back since.

MOTIVATION AND PASSION

Women choose farming as a career for many reasons. Ujcic didn’t want to put her son in day care; Slattery was an avid home gardener and realized she could turn her hobby into a business; Foster enjoyed being outdoors and using her hands.

Beyond all the practical reasons, the fact is, women are concerned with what goes into the food they serve their families. “Women enjoy nurturing life both in the plants and in the people they’re feeding. That’s a very strong value for them,” explains Ostrom. “They really want to grow good food and see themselves producing healthy food that will … nourish people and build community.”

The corporate and conventional approach to farming is just not in sync with women’s roles as caregivers and nurturers, Ujcic explains. “Women are connected to our food and feeding ourselves and our kids … It was time for somebody to step in and say, ‘No, this isn’t really working and we can make something better.’”

Organic advocates may be cautious about saying that women have a natural instinct for organic over conventional farming, but many women farmers state that choosing organic and sustainable farming methods was never a debate.

Ujcic insists that organic and sustainable farming is the most sane and integrative approach. “We live on a beautiful river so for me it’s not so much the food that you’re eating, but about [not] polluting the neighborhood … The chemicals in our environment right now are just a real detriment to our health,” she says. “Basically it’s for the health of the planet, the health of the people eating the food, and the health of the fish in that river we are farming right next to.”

Likewise, Slattery agrees that the long-term health of the land and the environment is of utmost importance. “If you’re trying to [farm] long-term, if you really are committed to a piece of property, it just makes sense to be trying to renew the soil and conserve resources.” Her life mantra is to leave as small a footprint on the planet as possible with regard to waste or the resources she uses, and she feels that “if you do right by the land, then the land will do right by you.”

COMMUNITY BUILDING

“Women [want] to share the bounty and goodness that comes from connecting people to their food,” says Schwartz. “They have a great deal to do with the increase in farmers markets, CSAs and forging a new connection with food.”

Ostrom agrees that women are largely responsible for the revitalization of farmers markets and the growth of alternate methods of direct marketing. “We have people coming in with very good marketing skills and good business management skills. When these new opportunities develop in the market, women have been quick to jump on them.”

Community building also takes place in other ways. Ujcic hosts farm tours to help people, particularly children, understand her farming methods and the importance of farmland. She also runs a program that gives CSA shares to people at food banks, and conducts farm-to-table dinners with different restaurants in the region. “This kind of outreach is important to us now that we’re established,” says Ujcic. “We want people to see what’s going on [on our farm] and get food to people who can’t afford it. We believe in the idea that fresh foods should be readily available and affordable for everybody.”

As in many other industries, women farmers often go into partnerships with each other. Foster farms with her mother, and has yet to hire a man on her farm; Schwartz farmed with a female partner before buying Blue Heron Farm from her; and Ujcic is proud of her 17-year relationship — both personal and professional — with Salafsky. “A lot of businesses do not last long and we’ve successfully managed to grow the business,” she says. “[Plus], we’ve managed to gain weight and lose weight together, raise children together; we’ve watched each other get divorced and remarried. We’ve been through a lot together and it’s been really positive and helpful. It’s really great to have another woman as a business partner like that.”

Women farmers also bond through the sharing of knowledge and philosophy. Foster meets regularly with a group of organic women farmers in Pierce County that spans several generations. “Seven or eight of us meet regularly. We try to get together once a month and have brunch to connect and create community,” she says.

Mentoring and apprenticeship programs are another way women farmers share their knowledge. Slattery’s apprenticeship program is now into its tenth year. “Within one season, [apprentices learn the] model of how we do it here from [planting and harvesting to marketing and outreach]. We’ve developed a pretty successful business plan that is transferable, and quite a few people who have done the apprenticeship here have used this template to start their own successful small farms around the country,” she says.

ORGANIC AND BEYOND

As larger grocery chains get into organics using the corporate model, eating seasonal and buying local produce is the way to go now, says Ujcic. “In terms of sustainability, what is the point when they are shipping in stuff from China? Our whole thrust right now with our business is to promote more seasonal eating, healthy eating, lifestyle, and supporting more of your local growers,” she says. “I think it’s really important to see who grows food in your neighborhood, and support them and keep them in business.”

In fact, Slattery has no plans to certify her produce organic. “I don’t feel like it really speaks to what we are trying to do here as far as sustainability. I sell everything direct right from my farm to the consumer,” she explains. “I encourage people to come here and if they have any questions about how we grow things, [they can] just come and see how we do it. I don’t really need to have a label that proves who we are and what we’re doing.”

The conventional farming world has a “get big or get out” mentality, says Foster, and she foresees the market moving toward a more industrial organic model. As a small-scale farmer, she wants to go one step further and adopt biodynamic (see sidebar) practices. “With the whole shift in organics — even Wal-Mart is getting into it — I want to farm to a higher standard.” Although she admits her goals are still a long way from reaching biodynamic standards, she is headed in that direction.

Women play a crucial role in demonstrating how important our food growers are, says Schwartz. “Women have done a tremendous amount to redefine the culture of food and there’s a lot more nurturing to be done as we redefine a different vision of food and community by being a force in the day-to-day function of farming.”

Pat Tanumihardja writes about food, culture, and lifestyle for local, national and international magazines.

A list of local farmers markets is available by clicking here

©2007 Caliope Publishing Company