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Welcome to WFAN Online...
"To link and empower
women to build food systems and communities that are healthy, just, and sustainable, and that promote
environmental integrity."
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New!
2008 Tri-State Women in
Agriculture Fall Gathering, November 14-16
- pdf format
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13 Stories:
Iowa Women Farmers’ Motivations, Beliefs, and Practices Within the Local
Foods Movement - pdf format
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Iowa Farm Disaster Relief Coalition Applications Now Available;
Donations Still Needed!
- pdf format
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Weather
Disaster Resource Links
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FLOODING
HAS US LANDLOCKED! -
pdf format
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Cass County Women Farmland
Owners: Survey Report - pdf format
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Women and the Land -
pdf format
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Iowa farm-to-school program gets fresh foods to students
- pdf format
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Women and Food Production - Online Video
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Small food, farm businesses
provide healthy future for Iowa - pdf format
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Dana
Jackson Receives “Sustainable Woman of Agriculture” Award -
pdf format
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Women Farmers: The Key To Food Security
(Click HERE to
view a pdf version of the power point presentation
given by
Denise at Iowa State on September 19, 2007)
Presented by Denise O'Brien
Women, Food and Agriculture Network
Presented to the Graduate Program for Sustainable
Agriculture
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Women's Voices in the Farm Bill and Family Farmers and the Farm Bill
Women, in their roles as landowners, farmers, and consumers, have important perspectives
and priorities to contribute to the 2007 Farm Bill. Women, Food, and Agriculture Network
held a series of ten listening sessions in the spring of 2006 to bring women's concerns into
focus This two page document from different listening sessions examines the voices of women
and family farmers speaking about the Farm Bill
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Women's Voices in the Farm Bill
Broadening Perspectives in Agricultural Policy
In Spring of 2006, Women, Food, and Agriculture Network (WFAN) held a series of ten
women's Farm Bill listening sessions across the state of Iowa with assistance from the
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. The aim of the sessions was to learn which
agricultural and food issues are most important to women in Iowa and what they would
like to see included in the 2007 Farm Bill. See This document.
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Women, Land,
and Legacy(sm)
Organizational Partners and Contributors
Natural Resources
Conservation Service
Farm Service Agency
National Catholic Rural Life
Conference
North Central Regional
Center for Rural Development
National Agricultural
Statistics Service
Women, Food, and Agriculture
Network
Ecumenical Ministries of
Iowa
Risk Management Agency
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of Women, Land,
and Legacysm
is to provide Iowa’s farm
women a risk management tool that brings them together at the local
level to empower them to act on their landscapes and within their
communities. There are two important steps in the WLLsm
process: the first is to
listen and learn from Iowa’s women farmland owners about their vision
and goals for the land in facilitated listening sessions. The second is
to use this information to create opportunities through workshops and
projects that a) are in accordance with women’s values, b) address
topics local women identify as important and c) address topics in ways
that improve women’s abilities to make good decisions about their land.
This report is a summary of ways in which Iowa’s women landowners frame
agriculture and their place within it as articulated through the
participation of 806 women representing 22 of Iowa’s 99 counties in the WLLsm
listening sessions. The
analysis is based on content analysis of women’s input recorded at each
session. These sessions enrich our understanding of women’s
relationships to the land and how these women navigate the social
landscape to manage their land in ways true to their values. The
following are key highlights:
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Women view the family-owned
farm as an expression of financial, political, and cultural independence
and resistance.
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Women want freedom from
outside control (such as corporate control, market prices, outside
investors, etc.).
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Women support
diversification in agriculture as a means to protect their independence.
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Women view knowledge and
learning as a way to achieve independence.
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Women support agricultural
diversification to improve self-reliance.
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Women understand they have
assets and want to use them to become empowered.
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Women recognize political
involvement as a way to change policy but have difficulty gaining access
via structures and environments in which they traditionally do not
function.
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Women value decentralized
agriculture through their support for new farmers, young farmers, and
many farmers for a “smaller, diverse agriculture.”
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Women in the listening
sessions articulate a strong connection to community.
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Women cite the quality,
beauty and essence of rural life as the positive core of their
communities.
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Women say farm life embodies
a set of unique values which serve as the foundation for meaningful
social interaction.
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Women recognize the role of
farming communities in shaping public perceptions about food and public
health.
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Women exhibit a clear and
strong consciousness about land health issues and respect nature
intrinsically—not for its productive value, but because it sustains all
life.
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Women frequently reference
spirituality and religiosity through their connection with the land that
transcends its productive value.
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Women favor implementing
conservation practices today to ensure the land can sustain future
generations of tomorrow.
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Women value the land because
it provides them with a quality family life.
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Women maintain relationships
with others who can help them make informed decisions about their farm
operations.
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Women landowners say they
are not always treated fairly and with respect.
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Women attribute health and
healing benefits to their relationship with the land.
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Confidence and self-esteem
are closely tied to women’s knowledge contributions to the farm, as well
as their health and labor assets.
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Women are concerned with the
drain of human resources away from their rural communities.
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Women farmland owners
overwhelmingly support policies, programs, and initiatives that
encourage new farmers and young families to occupy the land and farm in
their communities.
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Women credit farming and
land ownership as the foundation for family values, morality, a good
work ethic, and a healthy place to raise children.
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Women view themselves as
active protectors of both family and the land: protecting one
necessarily translates into protecting the other as they are symbiotic.
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Women support policies that
provide incentives for better farm conservation practices, protect air
and water quality by regulating and monitoring feedlots and confinement
manure pits, and control urban sprawl and restrict housing developments
on farmland.
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Women use kinship and
friendship networks to help them make decisions about for their land and
agriculture
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Women also consult a variety
of both public and private sector resources to help them make decisions
such as the NRCS, FSA, ISU Extension, community college personnel, law
and financial experts, the Farm Bureau, experienced producers, elders,
feed co-ops, agronomists, land tenants, and local business owners.
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Women landowners view
financial capital as a means to a goal, not an end in itself. That is,
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women landowners are
concerned for and acting not only on behalf of their current personal
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financial situation but also
their
future financial
situation for their immediate and extended
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family.
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Women say land ownership
solidifies and stabilizes business relationships women have with
lenders, which makes farm management and decision making easier.
For the full report, visit
http://www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu/projects/wll/WLL-report.pdf
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Iowa's Local Food Systems:
A Place to Grow
Laura Krouse
Teresa Galluzzo
http://www.iowapolicyproject.org/2007docs/070206-LocalFood.pdf
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