Recently the fabulous Hannah Moloney interviewed me about being a female Australian farmer. Hannah has just returned from a stint in Africa with ActionAid working with women farmers and researching where they sit in relation to community food security (right at the center, of course).
Now Hannah is back Down Under, she’s featuring some truly kick-arse women farmers across Australia who are, well… kicking-arse within their field(s) on her Activista ActionAid blog. I was really stoked to be interviewed as part of this!
Answering Hannah’s questions was tricky – this is such a hard subject to talk about without feeling like you’re straying into gender stereotypes and assumptions! Added to that fact that we are very much at the inception of our farming journey, in many ways…
But we need to nut this stuff out if we’re going to move towards a regenerative agriculture, so bring it on. >> Read the interview
Do you know any fabulous women working in regenerative agriculture that you admire hugely? I do. The first ones that spring to mind for me are:
- Joyce Wilkie of Allsun Farm
- Annemarie Brookman of The Food Forest
- Jane Wilson of Tinja Organics
- Vandana Shiva (does she count? I rekon she does)
- Jude Fanton of Seedsavers
- Dr Christine Jones
- The girls from Holy Goat
And that’s just for starters… got any more to add to this list?
How about me, I am running a tiny little farmy in Illinois. Not special. Not big. Not loud. Just feeding myself, my husband and my neighbours, friends and family using organic practices and managing the land sustainably.. c
Awesome. Hooray for you, Cecilia!
Great interview!
Julie Firth in Geraldton WA is doing amazing permaculture stuff in a dry land,
Jodie Lane ( Fair Harvest Margaret River)
Bee Winfield ( yes me) Merri Bee Organic Farm
establishing permaculture for 25 years now in ever drying Nannup WA
Cheers Merri. Great to know. Just met Jodie at the Biofertilizer course here at the farm in October – great lady!
and some nominations from Adam Grubb (via email):
” I’ve met Jacci a couple of times and I get the feeling that besides being a farmer she is a killer organiser promoting land care, soil health and pasture cropping http://home.iprimus.com.au/refitzpatrick/angus/history.html
I was on the radio on Monday with Robin from Transition Farm CSA on Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne. It’s early days for their project but she was great! http://transitionfarm.com/ “
How about Su Dennett from Melliodora in Hepburn Springs?
Well spotted, Meg. I’d second that – Su is an inspiriation…
Elaine Ingham! Go the Soil Food Web! 🙂
Urban Agriculture / Permaculture ….. Fiona Campbell, Jude Fanton, Jill Cockram, Debbie Hebbard…..gosh the list could go on and on…..
😀
Plus one Su Dennett! If you’re going international, Sharon Astyk is a homesteader/farmer from NY state and prolific writer of book and blog, over at: http://sharonastyk.com/
i hope you’ll talk some more about gendered expectations in farming — you’d be the chicken/poultry keeper, milkmaid, cheese maker, butcher/smokehouse, medicinal herbalist, brewer, vintner, chef? and not the stable hand, machinist, ploughman, kennel master, horse and cow breeder, shepherd, sower, reaper, sharpener of blades, builder of barns, etc.?