Educasting Study Guide on Food, Sustainability, and Society

Study Guide Discussion Questions

In the Tractor Seat: Women Farmers Take the Steering Wheel

Pre- Listening

When you think of women farmers, what kinds of roles and responsibilities do you imagine them filling on a farm? Do you have women relatives or friends who have worked on a farm? What roles do they fill?

Do you feel that women relate to land in a different way than men do? Why or why not? Explain your thoughts. What, if any, unique strengths do women bring to farming?

Interview One: Angela Jackson Pridie, beef farmer and advocate with the Organic Grass Fed Beef Coalition, Vermillion, South Dakota

Summary of Interview:
Jackson Pridie talks about some of unique the challenges women farmers face, including skepticism from their male counterparts, their invisibility, their often double workloads running both their homes and farms, and predatory practices towards women among some real estate developers. She describes how women have approached farming differently from men and how they generally work better with small animals and on small farms and tend to be especially skilled at relating face-to-face to farmers market customers.

Discussion Questions:

As host Mark Sommer begins the interview with Jackson Pridie, he mentions that in recent years “women have made major inroads in organic small-scale farming operations and community supported agriculture.” What factors contribute to this rise in the number of women farmers and why are they particularly drawn to small-scale organic farming?

Based on what Jackson Pridie says, why did she go into farming in the first place? What obstacles did she face in doing so and how did she address them? How did she deal with the skepticism of her male counterparts? Was physical strength a problem for her? How did she deal with the heavy lifting farming requires? [listening link top of page 2 starting with “what was it that drew you to do this” and ending with “and then the animal health and welfare”]

Jackson Pridie says that “women typically are very good stewards of the land and they work better with small animals and they do better working on small farms. And in most cases, they’re better at directing marketing and they’re better salespeople.” Do you agree with her observation? If so, why? If not, why not?

Jackson Pridie remembers her grandmother asking her why, with her educational background, she would consider farming as a career. These days farming is a highly technical profession, requiring computer skills, agronomy, soil science and much other specialized knowledge. [listening link page 4 from “And a lot of times like in my case” up to “and I want to be a part of it”] Why do some people assume that those with a higher education background wouldn’t go into farming? What would you advise someone with an interest in farming to do to be successful? What would have to change for people to believe that farming is a rewarding profession to pursue? What benefits does a person with higher education bring to farming? What non-academic skills and gifts are essential to successful farming? At a time of dwindling farm population, what does it take to be a successful farmer?

Interview Two: Marguerite Pierce, Pierce Family Farms, Orleans, California

Summary of Interview:
Marguerite Pierce has had a different experience as a woman in farming than Angela Jackson Pridie. She has never felt at a disadvantage as a woman in farming nor felt that being a woman gave her a different perspective on the tasks at hand. She also discusses what drew her to farming and describes the organic techniques she uses to grow food. As a member of the organic movement since its inception, Pierce talks about how the market for her food has fluctuated in the past few decades and how she views new trends in mainstreaming organic agriculture.

Discussion Questions:

Why do you think Jackson Pridie and Pierce have elicited such different reactions from people when they find out that the two women are farmers? Jackson Pridie has had her competence challenged by men skeptical that she’s up to the job while Pierce says that she has “never had any problem with it, and I’ve never met anybody that had any problem with me, as a woman.”

Listen again to Pierce’s conversation with Mark Sommer about the shift in the organic movement from small farms and natural food stores to industrialized organics. [link on page 6 starting from “What about the evolution of the organic movement” to “Well that’s the world we live in now”] Pierce says that with the mainstreaming of organic food has generated increasing competition among both small and large farmers. What do you think of her responses to Sommer’s questions? How would you have answered the questions, rephrased here:

The organic movement started as a shift in a whole way of life and farming and was about more than just growing without pesticides. Now that it has become part of the mainstream and certain elements have been left behind in some arenas (e.g., small farms, encouraging community, local production) do you think the movement has lost its purpose and direction or is this natural and necessary part of making healthy food available to a wide range of people? Explain.

When talking about buying directly from the farmer at farmers markets, Pierce says that the relationship is more intimate than a supermarket and that “people do get personal because food is a really personal thing…they care where their food comes from; it’s important.” Have you ever thought about food like this? Do you know where your food comes from before it reaches the supermarket? Do you care? Why or why not?

Pierce says that “it’s good to eat [food] in season because then you have something to look forward to.” Thinking about the big picture of food as a whole system of production, distribution, sale and purchase, why else might it be good to eat food that is in season? What foods do you buy out of season? Do they taste the way they do when they’re in season?

Interview Three: Denise O’Brien, farmer and executive director of Women, Food, and Agriculture Network, Atlantic, Iowa

Summary of Interview:
O’Brien paints a historical picture of women farming in the United States. Farm women never did strictly housework; they maintained the house while also actively participating in farm work. In fact, some women even set up homesteads on their own. From this starting point, O’Brien touches on the women’s movement and why it didn’t do much to boost recognition of women’s sizeable contributions to agriculture. Today women are starting to emerge from their invisibility of the past and even young women are choosing to enter farming. Generational differences persist, however, and older women in particular have become vulnerable to predatory land buyers when their husbands die.

Discussion Questions

Did you know that women homesteaded independently or even that they contributed as partners in their the work on the farm? If not, does it surprise you to learn this? Why do you think you never learned about this when studying the movement westward in American history? [listening link bottom of page 9 starting with “tell us a bit about the history of women” up to “women homesteaded on their own”]

O’Brien talks about the women’s movement being very urban-based and not reaching out to rural women. She asserts that one of the reasons why it did not appeal to rural women was because of the traditional Christian society pervasive in rural areas. Do you have any other thoughts on why the women’s movement did not generally appeal to rural women?

Do you see any way to prevent predatory buyers from muscling older women away from the land after their husbands die? What specific ideas do you think would help older women protect themselves and their property? [listening link on page 10 starting with “I want to say that women now own nearly 50% of the rentable land” ending with “so it’s a very broad spectrum at this point in time”]

O’Brien asserts that women have a different emotional bond with the land than men when they are farmers. If you agree, what is this difference? If not, explain your reasoning. Could it be nurtured in men?

Why do you think O’Brien sees a connection between women majoring in environmental studies in college and their decision to become farmers? [listening link bottom of page 10 and top of 11 starting with “And it’s so funny across the United States” up to “in order to put more young people on the land”]

Interview Four: Maria Moreira, dairy farmer and cheese maker, new immigrant farmer mentor

Summary of Interview:
Moreira discusses what her life was like before immigrating to the United States, and what changed for her once her parents moved with her here when she was 12. She talks about why she and her husband decided to go into farming and what some of the hardships they’ve faced together have been. Throughout the hardships, she maintains that they have remained equal partners, always making decisions together and both carrying the load of their profession together.

Discussion Questions:

Moreira describes the way of life she experienced in the Azores before moving to America when she was 12. She says that the experience of farming and eating from the land “is still in me; that never leaves.” [listening link on page 11 starting with “we came from an agrarian background” and ending with “that never leaves”] Why do you think she has been able to retain the reality of this experience while so many of us in the United States have lost touch with our agrarian roots?

Moreira says that her experience of farming as a woman is different because she is an immigrant; she says that she and her husband don’t differentiate their roles on the farm and that “we just worked together well. We totally respect our areas of expertise and we complement each other.” How do you think the other women interviewed in this program would respond to the host’s question about how she and her husband differentiate their roles in running the farm?

Moreira says that the love of farming is a disease: “most farmers that I know, they say ‘Well, I’m not doing too bad. I’m still paying the bills.’ But they’re working 16 hours a day and they’re ok with that, which in any other business you would say ‘Hmm, that’s not a very smart person.’” Why do you think people love farming so much when it’s so physically demanding and there’s so little remunerative reward? Why do they keep at it?

Concluding Discussion Questions

Answer these questions after listening to the program in full.

What similarities and differences do you see in why these women chose farming as their profession and life’s work? What draws them to farming?

Throughout the program, we heard women described as being generally friendlier at the farmers markets than men, better at direct marketing, If you accept this observation as generally true, why do you think it’s so? How could women convey this skill to their male counterparts?