Women's Agricultural Network Blog

On my drive home the other night, I heard a story on APM’s Marketplace Freakonomics Radio about the dearth of patents received by women (only 7.5% of all patents filed). The shortage of patents was connected to the age-old (and sometimes controversial) gender gap in the science and engineering fields. Stephen Dubner (Freakonomics co-author) went on to suggest that if more women entered these fields, there would be a “dramatic effect on the economy…[that] might lift the GDP per capita by as much as 2.7%”!

Well, when the terms “innovation” and “science” are used together, SARE—the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program–comes immediately to my mind, since its mission is to provide, “grants and education to advance innovations in sustainable agriculture.” And since Women’s History Month (and its theme of women’s empowerment) is just coming to a close now, I started to reflect on this radio spot, SARE, its 24 years of funding sustainable agriculture research, and its women scientists who have inspired me over the past two decades here at UVM (wow, what an example of my frenetic brain!)

One inspiring example is Dr. Jill Shore Auburn. Dr. Auburn was the director of SARE for 10 years and is now the Acting Director of the USDA Office of the Chief Scientist where she encourages the advancement of sustainable agricultural systems throughout all of USDA’s science programs.

These days, there are many inspirational women scientists conducting sustainable agriculture research including veterans like UVM’s Drs. Lorraine Berkett, Margaret Skinner, CDAE Dept chair Jane Kolodinsky, and PSS Dept Chair Deborah Neher…and younger, enthusiastic and committed scientists like Drs. Heather Darby, Jana Kraft, and Yolanda Chen. All are pursuing research to improve our agriculture and food systems here in Vermont and beyond.

In SARE 20/20: Celebrating Our First 20 Years, Envisioning the Next, Dr. Auburn introduces the report by saying, “SARE must become an even stronger force for change…[with] more groundbreaking research that deepens our understanding and practice of sustainability in its many dimensions: social, economic and environmental…Most importantly, it means investing in a new generation of committed and creative leaders who can forge new paths to get us where we need to go.” What’s most exciting to me is seeing this new generation of women scientists cropping up in Northeast SARE’s newest grant program – the Graduate Student Grants.

UVM graduate student, Bridgett Jamison, talks about the use of forage radishes as a pasture improvement tool, the topic of her NE-SARE grant.

In a scan of all Northeast SARE grants programs over the past 5 years, I found that the program has had a rich history of funding female project coordinators to conduct sustainable agriculture research and outreach. For example, in the Research and Education grants programs, 58% of project coordinators over the past 5 years have been women. 71% of the Sustainable Community grants have been led by women during that same time period. Last year, of the Graduate Student Grants funded (only its second year of operation), 82% are being conducted by women. These graduate students are our next generation of scientists, farmers, consumers, and/or all of the above!!

The deadline to apply for the 2013 Graduate Student Grants is coming up on May 25, 2012. For more information, visit the Northeast SARE website at: nesare.org. With women leading the way, I believe our future of sustainable agriculture innovation is bright!

“If women farmers had the same level of access to resources that men have, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 percent—vital gains at a time when about one in seven people goes hungry. No wonder the UN declared the theme of International Women’s Day 2012 Empower rural women—end hunger and poverty.”

Thursday, March 8, 2012 is International Women’s Day. It seems an opportune time to share a few facts and figures about how women are doing around the globe. The following statistics are provided by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). They are sobering numbers.

• Sixty-six percent of the world’s work falls on women’s shoulders, yet they earn only 10 percent of the world’s income.
• Worldwide in 2008, nearly 800 million people over the age of 15 could neither read nor write—and two-thirds of them were women.
• Early pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death among girls between the ages of 15 and 19 in developing countries, excluding China.
• In developing countries for which data are available, women account for only 10 to 20 percent of landowners.
• On average, women make up 43 percent of the agricultural workforce in developing countries.
• Women in Africa access only 1 percent of total available credit in the agricultural sector.
• The highest echelons of political power and decision making remain off limits to the vast majority of women: A 2010 UN report notes that only 7 of 150 elected heads of state in the world are women, and of the world’s 500 largest corporations, only 13 have a woman as a chief executive officer.
• In the majority of countries, women’s wages are 10 to 30 percent lower than men’s.

If it seems hard to be a woman farmer in the United States can you begin to imagine the realities our sisters in developing countries are living with?  On March 8, or whenever you happen to read this, please give some thought to what you might do to honor those women struggling in ways we cannot begin to understand.

To learn about how to join this initiative go to the 2o12 International Women’s Day website.  At the website you will find ways to get involved, inspiring stories of women succeeding against all odds, and more statistics that track the health and welfare of women around the world.

Please share your ideas on how we might all get more involved and make a difference in the lives of rural women in 2012.