“Women are Crucial for Agricultural Security” – Happy International Women’s Day!
Posted: March 8, 2011 Filed under: Farm Women Fancy, Finger Foods | Tags: agriculture, biodynamic agriculture, carbon footprint, community supported agriculture, domesticity, feminism, food culture, food justice, food policy, hunger and nutrition, industrial food system, news, women, women farmers Leave a comment »
{photo cred: http://www.homesweethomefront.co.uk/}
Today is International Women’s Day, but really every day should be international women’s day. Anyone familiar with me or this blog knows how much I value women farmers and feminism/femininity through agriculture. I usually feel like a black sheep among my peers, haranguing-on long after everybody has stopped listening to my pro-feminist, pro-food polemic. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating just a bit, but considering all that’s been going-on as of late here in the U.S., it’s hard NOT to feel argumentative.
Recent articles and attention to women farmers have made me feel less absurd. In light of International Women’s Day, the focus on women in agriculture moves into a broader, more global context. An article today on FastCompany.com highlights the newest addition of The State of Food and Agriculture, 2010-2011 (SOFA) from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The 160-page report, subtitled “WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE: Closing the gender gap for development” emphasizes the role of women farmers worldwide in reducing poverty and hunger. You can read a 4-page summary/flier of the report OR, for you tried-and-true women-in-ag nerds like myself, you can read the entire report here.
The most important take-away message from the report from the FAO media center page:
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.
And:
“The report shows the hard economic numbers behind a message we’ve known for a long time, which is that women are crucial for agricultural security.” - SOFA editor Terri Raney, via FastCompany.com.
So there you have it: invest in women farmers, solve world hunger (well, sorta). Happy International Women’s Day!
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Spiritual Agriculture
Posted: March 30, 2009 Filed under: Agriculture | Tags: biodynamic agriculture Leave a comment »Thanks to a link on the NoImpactMan site, I read the first article in a two-part series about spiritual environmentalism in Orion magazine. The author, Curtis White, discussed environmentalists’ fear of using spiritual language in their defense for the earth. I guess it’s easier for policy makers to dismiss an environmentalist’s plans as those of a doped-up hippie if he/she uses phrases such as “respect for life.”
However, Curtis argues that it is this philological fear that is holding back environmentalists from taking down the Monsanto-like idols. He urges environmentalists to embrace the spiritual nature of nature and to avoid the sterile political language that policy makers and earth-wreckers alike are comfortable with. This article got the synapses and nerve endings in my already over-worked brain sparking thoughts of agreement.
About a week later I came across the term “biodynamic agriculture.” As any slightly incredulous reader would do, I looked up the phrase in google and discovered an underground world of spiritual farming – something I’m sure Mr. Curtis could appreciate. Biodynamic farmers treat farms as living organisms and use holistic approaches to farming. Or, more eloquently put on the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association website, “The fundamental principles of biodynamic farming and gardening – a unified approach to agriculture that relates the ecology of the earth-organism to that of the entire cosmos.”
Biodynamic farming veers off the straight and narrow science behind traditional farming into a more holistic ideal of food production. However, it sticks to its own careful practices to preserve soil fertility, especially the organic humus bacteria layer that revitalizes the soil. This approach includes compost preparation and specific guidelines for manure storage.
The BFGA also recently announced the start of the North American Biodynamic Apprenticeship program where every yoga-loving farm enthusiast can register for a two-year certification program that includes on site farming as well as classroom rhetoric.
