The world's women farmers

[maystone]

This is an inspiring photo essay on women farmers inspired by Secretary Hillary Clinton's op-ed piece on food security. Melissa, the blog mistress, gathered all of the photos; I think she did a stunning job.

I miss being able to work out there. Until lupus hit - and even during the first year or so - I loved being out there in the fields and the paddocks. I'd stay there for most of the day; I loved the work, I loved the animals, I loved the barn, I loved being outside. Not many of those days anymore.

Anyway . . . say the word farmer, and the image of a man on a tractor comes most immediately to mind for most of us. It's our learned response. Yet most of the farmers that I know now are women, and the people who have to come to help us here with the chores and the animals are also women - most especially sparky77, cajoje, and sffan. Most of the members of our alpaca collective are women. In developing parts of the world, many women work in farm collectives, too. It's a good system for us.

I just wanted to share this with you, because it brought a lump to my throat. And because it was missing from the photo essay, I want to end with a picture of Farmer Dar.

Comments

[cajoje.livejournal.com]

Most farming isn't done in the daylight. :)

[maystone.livejournal.com]

Ha! You're right. I just meant that all of the other photos were in sunny and mostly warm climates.

[petranef.livejournal.com]

It looks like cold, hard, lonely work. No wonder it's left to the women to do.....

[maystone.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[llaras.livejournal.com]

:-)

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

Lovely :-)

[sffan.livejournal.com]

That is such a fantastic picture.

[sparky77.livejournal.com]

That picture of Dar is amazing and I loved the photo essay. I've always kind of associated women more with farming than men.

[brighty18.livejournal.com]

Amazing photo and amazing link. Andrew and I thoroughly enjoyed both. As I scrolled through the photo essay, I could not help but identity with some of those pictures (Italy and Maryland, for example), and I felt a great kinship with most everyone. It was a wonderful experience.

And it's interesting. Anthropologically speaking, women were probably the first to plant and tend soil, working in groups to first gather food and, eventually, plant and harvest food, whilst the men were out hunting. Eggs and dairy and kitchen gardens have long been the domain of the female. Industrial agriculture, in my opinion, spawned the male-centered need for large acreage, heavy machinery, and other farming enterprises associated with the masculine. And that's sad.

I agree about farming collectives, about returning to the soil in groups, and about the importance of working together.

Again, beautiful essay and beautiful photo. That shot so captures the heart of a cold, country morning and trudging in silence to the barn.

Blessings to you and Dar.

[maystone.livejournal.com]

You were one of the women I was thinking of when I posted this :) Good point about the anthropological history, too.

[gatezilla.livejournal.com]

That is a gorgeous photo.

Thanks to yearly grade-school field trips to the local dairy farm, my idea of farmers was always 'old dude with cow', but now I think of all the awesome women I've met at farmer's markets and you guys, of course. That photo essay was amazing.

[vampirefan.livejournal.com]

that is a beautiful photo!

damn, that snow is deep!

[clarionj.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the photo essay (I hadn't really considered all the women farmers all over the world). And what a beautiful picture you've added to it with Dar. (Though, oh the hard work it takes!)

[windrider67.livejournal.com]

What an absolutely gorgeous photo!