WOMEN FOOD AND AGRICULTURE NETWORK
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Mission Statement
The mission of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN) is to engage women and non-binary people in building an ecological and just food and agricultural system through individual and community power. WFAN envisions a vibrant, community-centered food and agricultural system in which women are strong leaders. WFAN values an ecological relationship with the land, interconnectedness, storytelling, ecofeminism, and justice. The idea of WFAN was born in 1995, when Iowa organic farmer Denise O’Brien– Rodale Institute’s 2021 Organic Pioneer Award Recipient - and New York state food justice advocate Kathy Lawrence organized a women in agriculture working group for the United Nations 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing. They were passionate about addressing the absence of women’s voices in agricultural policy in the US and abroad. They wanted to empower women as champions of healthy food and farming systems, food justice, and food sovereignty within their own communities. In the nearly thirty years since this initial meeting, WFAN has grown into a network of over 9,000 members, and partners. WFAN members come from across the US and several other countries. We are diverse in ages (ranging from teens to eighties) and backgrounds. We are farmers, urban gardeners, environmental educators, community activists, academics, and others who care about food and our environment. While the number of US women farmers has increased significantly since WFAN was founded, we still account for only about one third of primary operators. The US agricultural census has not yet collected data on what percentage of farmers identify as non-binary people. We know from working closely with our network members that women and non-binary food producers continue to feel marginalized, ignored, and overlooked and continue to face discrimination when seeking financial or educational resources. WFAN exists so that people who experience gender-based marginalization can support each other with the information, connections, and encouragement they need to be effective practitioners and supporters of sustainable agriculture and healthy localized food systems.
About This Cause
From the microbiota of the soil to the agricultural committees in congress, we need greater diversity if we are to address the compounding injustices of climate change, social inequality, and ecological degradation. Toward that end, Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN) works with women and non-binary people across the country to create a more socially and ecologically just food and farming system. WFAN strives to create space for members to engage and work together as we address the intersections of rural, agricultural, and environmental problems and work toward gender justice. Our core programming includes four main components: 1) Harvesting Our Potential (HOP) provides paid mentorships for women and non-binary beginning and aspiring regenerative farmers to learn from experienced mentors; 2) Women Caring for the Land (WCL) utilizes learning circles to create communities of support for women and non-binary landowners who take an active role in advancing conservation on working lands; 3) Growing Community Resilience (WCL) hosts monthly meet-ups to generate discussion and learning around transforming our food system; and 4) The annual conference builds community and creates spaces to share knowledge. Over the next 12-18 months, WFAN will continue to strengthen and expand these programs. We also are exploring opportunities to build connections between the different audiences that have been attracted to our programs, which we believe will serve our broader goal of building a sustainable and equitable food system. Our top short- to mid-term priorities include: Priority 1: Expand the geographical and demographic reach of our mentorship program, which recently expanded beyond Iowa to include mentor/ mentees pairs in rural Ohio and Chicago. We will continue to grow our network of trained women and non-binary mentors, including into more urban areas and additional states. Further, we are in the process of updating our mentor training - designed in 2012 - to ensure mentors are prepared to work with diverse mentees and to provide a well-planned educational experience. We will remain invested in mentors and mentees who are committed to sustainable, diversified production that feeds local communities, thereby growing the next generation of regenerative farmers/ ranchers. Priority 2: Broaden the scope of programming tailored to women and non-binary landowners. Our Women Caring for the Land program has played an instrumental role in supporting women and non-binary farmland owners across the Midwest to learn about and implement conversation. Women and non-binary people often are excluded or ignored within agricultural spaces, whether through bullying, intimidation, the use of inaccessible jargon, etc. WCL creates supportive learning environments and teaches participants how to speak with their farmer-tenants and families about better stewarding the land. Past programming has focused heavily on soil health and water quality. We recently have begun to focus more explicitly on climate change and pollinator habitat. Going forward, we will continue to engage WCL participants on these topics and plan to further expand into educational programming that supports landowners to consider just land transition models, crop diversification, and other topics vital to environmental and social justice. Priority 3: Through networking events, educational programming, and one-on-one relationship building, facilitate connections between landowners and beginning or aspiring farmers/ ranchers within our network. Historically, our HOP and WCL audiences have remained siloed. We will spend the next 12 - 18 months building and implementing a strategy for linking landowners to aspiring or beginning farmers/ ranchers within our network. As part of that strategy, we will draw on our relationships with organizations who have the technical capacity to provide in-depth advice on land rental arrangements and land transition models. Our aim is to link landowners to beginning farmers who are deeply invested in sustainable farming models and social justice. Priority 4: Continue to learn and grow as an organization committed to social justice and equity. Over the past several years, the WFAN staff and board have strengthened our commitment to anti-oppression work that goes beyond a simple focus on gender justice. While we remain deeply committed to empowering women in agriculture, we have made strides toward becoming more intersectional in our approach. In 2019 we released a gender inclusivity statement to indicate we are supportive of all people who hold a marginalized gender identity or expression - including cis and trans women and non-binary or gender non-conforming people. We also have drafted and released a JEDI statement, strategic plan, and theory of change that clearly state our dedication to anti-racism and decoloniality. We will continue to work toward expanding our own understanding of how to build a food system that builds greater social justice. WFAN currently partners with over 30 other organizations, including sustainable agriculture nonprofits, conservation foundations, university programs, BIPOC-focused advocacy groups, LGBTQIA organizations, and of course our membership and supporters, which number over 10,000 individuals. WFAN acknowledges that the industrialization of food and agriculture systems has resulted in the depletion of soil, desertification, water contamination, habitat destruction and species decimation. We also believe that historically marginalized groups - including women, LGBTQ+ people, Indigenous communities, and people of color - have, for centuries, developed solutions that uphold community and ecological well-being. Internally, our JEDI commitment transcends our work. WFAN will continue to form and deepen relationships with new organizational partners and individuals that are values-aligned, cause-committed, and unafraid to provide thought leadership and accountability as WFAN moves forward in our anti-racist and anti-oppression work, which are inseparable from our environmental goals. Our priorities and resource allocations for the next year will be dedicated to centering that expertise and supporting women and non-binary people to transform our food and agricultural system into the just and ecological one our founding mothers envisioned over 25 years ago.