Fresh ingredients go a long way in adding flavor to any dish. The same culinary theory holds outside of the kitchen in other contexts as well, as evidenced at the 13th annual Community Food Security Coalition Conference this past week in Des Moines, Iowa. Over 500 activists from around the country gathered to connect, collaborate and challenge each other on ways to transform and improve our food system, including representation from young women dedicated to a farming career in sustainable agriculture.
As a female farmer myself, running Inn Serendipity farm and B&B with my husband, John Ivanko, in Wisconsin, this increasing blending and crossover between new women farmers with a passion for raising both cabbage and change cultivates a hefty serving of inspiration. These new women farmers grow more than food for our table; they rethink the status quo approach to our food system and provide keen insights into what needs to change.
“As one of the fastest growing groups of new farmers, women can be the change makers that transform our agricultural system into one that provides organic, healthy and fair food to us all,” explains Faye Jones, Executive Director of the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES), a Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) member organization that sponsored two women farmers to attend this conference. Wisconsin women farmers Jai Kellum of King’s Hill Farm and Erin Schneider of Hilltop Community Farm attended the CFSC Conference on behalf of MOSES.“It is important to keep the voice of farmers represented in the national discussion on food and agricultural policy and priorities,” sums up Jones.
Here are four of their tips for politicians to policy makers from Kellum and Schneider to improve our agriculture and food system:
Gender concern in water resources management is globally seen as instrumental in
achieving greater efficiency, effectiveness and equity in the sector. The role of women in water management has long been recognized by the Indian administration. One of the reasons for this is the importance of women in terms of their numerical strength and the significant contribution they make to the agricultural labor force.
In the primarily agricultural Indian setup, there is a strong need to encourage participation of women in even greater strength. Consequently, at least one of the states in India (and a drought hit one) has now declared reservation for women in all local water governing bodies at all levels.
This lively theatrical competition was held at the Surdevi Community Forest User Group Office on August 23, 2009 and presented by Partnership for Rhino Conservation and Friendship Chitwan. A total of seven groups from the Chitwan Buffer Zone and surrounding villages participated in the program with songs, poems, and stories about wildlife conservation.
As a pollutant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (or PAH’s as we call them in the business), are of concern because they have been identified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic (not good things if you were wondering). PAHs are created as a byproduct of the burning of coal, oil, and fossil fuels. Often they are of concern in urban areas where there is a higher carbon footprint, and it forms that nice cloud of yellow smoke you see floating over some of your major cities.
Now, new research out of Columbia University is showing that exposure to PAHs, can reduce neonate’s intelligence. The study performed in New York city where PAHs are in no short demand, showed IQ scores that were 4.31 and 4.67 points lower, respectively than those of less exposed children.
Women entrepreneurs, don’t miss the Keiretsu Forum’s 4th Annual Summer Solstice panel discussion tonight about “How Women Investors and Entrepreneurs Will Revive the California Economy.”
The event will bring together the Bay Area’s most talented minds to:
In [...]
Not long ago, I wrote a post on argan oil and its many beauty benefits. From anti-aging and antioxidant properties to hair and nail treatments, this oil is a wonder ingredient. Safe and natural, light and hydrating, argan oil has many uses in the beauty world. But the argan tree and its fruits have a long history with Moroccan women that goes beyond beauty.
NOTE: The views express here are strictly those of Green Diva Meg and not necessarily held or supported by GreenOptions Media or RedGreenandBlue.com.
If you haven’t seen the powerhouse Op-Ed by Gloria Steinem about Sarah Palin that was published in the Los Angeles Times last month, I highly recommend taking a few minutes to familiarize yourself with Ms. Steinem’s POV. She passionately articulates what so many of us have wanted to say. Thank you Gloria!
If you are a woman or love one (or several, whatever), I hope you will consider carefully how damaging the gun-toting Gov. and her ‘maverick’ boss could be to women’s rights and reproductive rights among other vital issues of course.
The next president will likely have to make a Supreme Court appointment.
And why should we care?
The next president will likely have the opportunity to appoint one possibly two Supreme Court justices. More than once in the last 8 years, the conservative right has attempted to stack the highest court with ‘pro life’ judges. If even one of the more left-leaning judges that is getting ready to retire is replaced by a conservative right-leaning judge who is inclined to overturn Roe v. Wade, there are many States waiting in the wings with ‘trigger’ laws just waiting to make abortion illegal. This is only one aspect of why the next president and their potential to appoint a Supreme Court justice is critical.
In many parts of Africa, climate change threatens to unravel women’s lives putting paid decades of efforts aimed at improving women’s lives and livelihoods. Unfortunately, women in rural areas lack of knowledge on the imminent dangers posed by climate change.
Despite the fact that women living in poverty are the most threatened by the dangers that stem from global warming, they also key actors in ensuring their communities’ ability to cope with and adapt to climate change.
In general, women lives are more intimitately connected to the environment more than men. Oftentimes, men tend to be away in the cities while the women look after children and work on the land in rural areas.
Many women depend on the ecosystem for food, energy, water and medicine, the very ecosystem which is threatened by the specter of climate change.
Someone needs to review first grade math. Talk about an unequal equation: Women make eighty-five percent of household food purchase decisions and own fifty-percent of our nation’s farmland. Women, particularly those over 55, add up to the largest and fastest growing group buying new farms today. So why then have women, historically, been so underrepresented in agriculture policy and national farming agendas?
Ask Iowa farmer, Denise O’Brien. But she’s not trying to teach the old farm dogs new math – she’s advocating for women to organize and reinvent the system.
For the past twenty years, O’Brien has led the charge of organizing and promoting the voice and face of women in agriculture and is founder of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network. “Finally, the tides are starting to turn for women farmers as policies just start to change,” explains O’Brien. “But it should have happened a long time ago and there’s still much we as women, from growers to grocery shoppers, can do to create a healthy food system for future generations.”
O’Brien racks up a history of seeing opportunity in crisis.
Quick trivia question: What’s the second verse to “The Farmer in the Dell”? Anybody? Here you go:
The farmer takes a wife,
The farmer takes a wife,
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The farmer takes a wife.
Talk about stale lyrics in dire need of an update. As women make up the largest and fastest growing group buying new farms today, we should be teaching kids something more like:
“The wife took over the farm.
To the land she did no harm,
Hi-ho, times change, you know, These chicks can really grow.”
Consider Iowa farmer, Denise O’Brien, chief song lyric rewriter and female farmer stereotype smasher extraordinaire. For the past twenty years she has led the charge of organizing and promoting the voice and face of women in agriculture and is founder of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network. “Finally, the tides are starting to turn for women farmers as policies start to change,” explains O’Brien. “But it should have happened a long time ago and there’s still much we as women, from growers to grocery shoppers, can do to create a healthy food system for future generations.”
O’Brien racks up a history of seeing opportunity in crisis.
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