Thursday, August 14, 2003

By Virginia Phillips

More women are becoming farmers at a time when most farmers are having a difficult time - especially men, says Carolyn Sachs, professor of rural sociology at Penn State.

"The face of agriculture is changing as women become the principal decision-makers. Women today are major operators - primary or full agricultural partners - on 53 percent of farms."

Sachs directs the university's Women Studies Program and has been deep into farm gender issues for longer than the research specialty has had a name. She is the author of the 1983 book "Invisible Farmers, Women in Agricultural Production."

With the number of farms dramatically falling, women today are the largest - and fastest growing - group buying farms. Federal statistics show that the number of farms owned and operated by women increased in the last decade as the number of men operating farms fell.

Sachs suggests some reasons women farmers are looking good:

"Women are inclined to do sustainable agriculture in a time when farmers of both sexes are looking for sustainability and social justice in agriculture. They are good at value-added techniques [such as turning their produce into prepared foods to sell].

"Women's farms are usually small, so most don't have high capital needs. They don't need heavy mechanical equipment.

"What we see happening is that more women are involved in agriculture for local urban consumers. They are not in the Midwest - they are in the Northeast and West."

E-mail this story   Print this story