There is reason to be hopeful about the changing landscape of farming—and food—in America.
Those of us who've been participating in the local food movement over the past few years may not be surprised to hear this, but there are 18,500 more small farms in the U.S. today than there were in 2002. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture, who provides these stats, defines small farms as those with $250,000 or less in sales.) In other words, while gargantuan factory farms are still out there, polluting our water, eroding the soil, and using antibiotics and pesticides indiscriminately, there's a rising movement of younger, sustainably-minded farmers who are growing food (and livestock) organically and on a smaller scale. (This is not to say that all 18,500 of these small farms are organic or sustainable but in general, small farms tread lighter on the environment than a CAFO does.)
Interestingly, this increase in small farms corresponds to a rise in the number of women farmers in the U.S. The 2007 Census of Agriculture shows that women have a growing presence in U.S. agriculture: of the 3.3. million farm operators in the U.S., 30 percent were women. (This represents a 19 percent increase from 2002—far outpacing the 7 percent rise in the number of farmers overall.)
While reporting this article for the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly, I interviewed a range of inspiring women from the twenty-something farm manager at Added Value in Red Hook, Brooklyn to a journalist who documents Chicago's urban ag movement on her blog (she's also at work on a book about urban agriculture). I also spoke to a pioneering sheep's milk cheesemaker, an outreach coordinator for NYC's GreenThumb program (she's also on the steering committee for the Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners conference this fall), and a woman who farms wheat, alfalfa, wine grapes, and olives—and raises sheep—on 2,000 acres on the Western Cape of South Africa.
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