More women turning to farming
Kelly Onanian
Rebecca Lipton has tilled the soil for 18 years. As owner of the Prospect Hill Farm and Fresh Idea Organic Land Care Management, both in Plympton, Lipton is not surprised that more women are growing organic crops these days as the number of female farmers of all types rises across the country.
Women are combining a keen interest in what's in their family's food with a desire to forge a career that takes them outdoors to be what Lipton calls "stewards of the land."
The number of female farmers is growing.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1978 women owned 5.2 percent of all farms. By 1997, that number increased to 8.6 percent.
Today, about 165,000 farms are run by women, and demographic, social and economic factors indicate that number will keep rising, the USDA says.
Some of these farming women are looking for a career change while others seek a second income.
"I'm happy to see that higher number because farming is a great enterprise for women and we have creative ideas," said Darlene Anastas, chairwoman of the Middleboro Agricultural Commission.
And the specialty of organic farming has soared in popularity over the past two decades.
According to the USDA, there were fewer than 1 million acres of certified organic farmland in the U.S. when Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990.
Certified organic farmland had doubled by the time the USDA implemented national organic standards in 2002 — and it doubled again between 2002 and 2005.
Organic livestock sectors have grown even faster, according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
"I believe women to be very progressive and they are aware more than ever of what goes into their food, that a lot of it is grown with pesticides, genetically modified and they want to change that," said Lipton, a single mother to daughters Isabelle, 18, and Eva, 14.
Anastas runs a 40-acre lavender, vegetable and hay farm in Lakeville, and she recently started a new six-acre veggie farm in Middleboro.
"I think the trend is inevitable because of the changing nature of family. There's more single, middle-aged women looking for something different and they're re-evaluating how to work a smaller landscape rather than open space," Anastas said.
Maryanne Reynolds and her partner Jana Dengler, both of Whitman, spent weekends touring central Massachusetts in search of the right piece of land to fit their dream of starting a small organic farm.
Reynolds had never farmed before and Dengler had not worked on a farm for years. But both said the time had finally arrived to pursue their interest in growing rare asparagus, raising cashmere goats and possibly adding a smokehouse to their operation.
"We're not leaving our day jobs and would do this part time now," said Reynolds. She is an attorney for the state and Dengler is director of facilities at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art.
Exploring a dream
Richard Chandler, director of the agriculture business training program for the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, cited a number of reasons for the rising number of female farmers. He teaches two classes throughout the state: "Exploring Your Small Farm Dream" and "Tilling the Soil of Opportunity."
"Some woman are thinking by default about a piece of unutilized land they may have inherited and are looking for a defensive piece because jobs are threatened" in the struggling economy, he said.
"But there are also people who, when it comes to farming, it's something they've just always wanted to do. In the last start-up class, there were a lot of brand-new farmers who were women."
Recently, his classes were held in Taunton and Greenfield, the locations chosen where there was greatest interest.
"Education has benefited the organic farmer and the organic farmer can now make a good living," Dengler, of Whitman, said.
Role models for kids
Debbie Allen Barrett, owner of Allen Farms in Westport, has been farming her property organically for 22 years, growing green-friendly crops long before it became a trend.
She grew products for her family but also started out with the intention of selling the produce commercially. And right from the start, she knew she would take the organic approach.
"I was working the fields carrying my daughter around on my back," she said. "There was no way I was going to use anything that would harm her."
Barrett started out small, growing herbs and greens and selling them to another farmer in the area who supplies restaurants. Today, her greens, herbs, specialty produce and edible flowers can be found year-round at Whole Foods stores from New Jersey to Maine.
In the 1990s, Lipton, of Plympton, became a certified organic farmer in Massachusetts. She sells a variety of fruits and vegetables off her farm, and also operates the green-friendly organic landscaping business.
"It's really important that my daughters realize they are stewards of the land and I try to spread that word every chance I get," Lipton says.