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.