Crop Insurance Solutions recognizes women’s contributions to agriculture

Crop Insurance Solutions recently highlighted the important role women play in agriculture, including in developing nations and in the United States, and recognized some women who are currently shaping the sector.

The insurance group noted that while women play a significant role in agriculture, they typically do not receive the same recognition. According to numbers cited by Crop Insurance Solutions, women in developing nations account for approximately 40 percent of the agricultural workforce and 66 percent of those tending to livestock. In the United States in 2012, 1 million of the nation's farmers were women, a figure that has continued to grow. The number of women in the country’s agricultural sector overall is growing rapidly, including farmers, scientists, economists and business leaders.

Crop Insurance Solutions singled out the contributions of four women who have had a significant impact on agriculture throughout the past few decades. The organization honored Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring; pesticide awareness activist Minnie Lou Bradley, who ran an award-winning Texas ranch with her husband and was the first female president of the American Angus Association; Betsy Fink, who cofounded Millstone Farm and is an advocate for sustainable agriculture; and Severine Von Tscharner Fleming, the founder and director of The Greenhorns, a non-profit dedicated to supporting the next generation of farmers.