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.
