-
Women view the family-owned
farm as an expression of financial, political, and cultural independence
and resistance.
-
Women want freedom from
outside control (such as corporate control, market prices, outside
investors, etc.).
-
Women support
diversification in agriculture as a means to protect their independence.
-
Women view knowledge and
learning as a way to achieve independence.
-
Women support agricultural
diversification to improve self-reliance.
-
Women understand they have
assets and want to use them to become empowered.
-
Women recognize political
involvement as a way to change policy but have difficulty gaining access
via structures and environments in which they traditionally do not
function.
-
Women value decentralized
agriculture through their support for new farmers, young farmers, and
many farmers for a “smaller, diverse agriculture.”
-
Women in the listening
sessions articulate a strong connection to community.
-
Women cite the quality,
beauty and essence of rural life as the positive core of their
communities.
-
Women say farm life embodies
a set of unique values which serve as the foundation for meaningful
social interaction.
-
Women recognize the role of
farming communities in shaping public perceptions about food and public
health.
-
Women exhibit a clear and
strong consciousness about land health issues and respect nature
intrinsically—not for its productive value, but because it sustains all
life.
-
Women frequently reference
spirituality and religiosity through their connection with the land that
transcends its productive value.
-
Women favor implementing
conservation practices today to ensure the land can sustain future
generations of tomorrow.
-
Women value the land because
it provides them with a quality family life.
-
Women maintain relationships
with others who can help them make informed decisions about their farm
operations.
-
Women landowners say they
are not always treated fairly and with respect.
-
Women attribute health and
healing benefits to their relationship with the land.
-
Confidence and self-esteem
are closely tied to women’s knowledge contributions to the farm, as well
as their health and labor assets.
-
Women are concerned with the
drain of human resources away from their rural communities.
-
Women farmland owners
overwhelmingly support policies, programs, and initiatives that
encourage new farmers and young families to occupy the land and farm in
their communities.
-
Women credit farming and
land ownership as the foundation for family values, morality, a good
work ethic, and a healthy place to raise children.
-
Women view themselves as
active protectors of both family and the land: protecting one
necessarily translates into protecting the other as they are symbiotic.
-
Women support policies that
provide incentives for better farm conservation practices, protect air
and water quality by regulating and monitoring feedlots and confinement
manure pits, and control urban sprawl and restrict housing developments
on farmland.
-
Women use kinship and
friendship networks to help them make decisions about for their land and
agriculture
-
Women also consult a variety
of both public and private sector resources to help them make decisions
such as the NRCS, FSA, ISU Extension, community college personnel, law
and financial experts, the Farm Bureau, experienced producers, elders,
feed co-ops, agronomists, land tenants, and local business owners.
-
Women landowners view
financial capital as a means to a goal, not an end in itself. That is,
-
women landowners are
concerned for and acting not only on behalf of their current personal
-
financial situation but also
their
future financial
situation for their immediate and extended
-
family.
-
Women say land ownership
solidifies and stabilizes business relationships women have with
lenders, which makes farm management and decision making easier.
