It is still novel to me to be a farmer, even after almost a decade of being one.
I participated in a survey last year in our county. The numbers reported, of women being the chief operator of a farm, were staggering. Women make many of the financial, crop and livestock decisions.
As I began researching the topic, what I learned about female farmers across the world swept away the original image that I had adopted. The t-shirt with the slogan, Girls Drive Tractors Too, wasn’t so cute after all.
Women across the world farm in a major effort to earn a living for their families. In America, farming can be something enjoyable (but involves hard non-glamorous work), and often it is something we choose to do. In many nations farming is done in an attempt to steer the family away from starvation. Farming for the family is not all about slipping into the Levi jeans and operating the big green machine. Female farmers do so to thrive.
I promise to remember the female farmers across the world that work from dawn to dusk in an attempt to feed, clothe and provide medical care for their families. When I purchase shea butter that is supposed to come from Ghana, harvested by the women, I want to know you are being supported sufficiently for your hard work. Poverty will never completely go away on our planet, but there does need to be some fairness. Free trade needs to freely teach, sustain and support. Human lives are human lives, regardless of where the head is laid down at night.
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