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Sisters In Sustainability: Gender-Driven Agricultural Initiatives Promoting Socioeconomic, Environmental, And Cultural Sustainability, Becky Jacobs

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

An increasing number of women are choosing to pursue careers in agriculture. A higher percentage of women are represented among sustainable farmers than are counted among conventional farmers. For example, in the United States, this percentage is 21percent as compared to 9percent. The way in which women farmers approach sustainable agriculture is consistent with the feminist ethic of care that encompasses responsibility, nurturing, relationality, and interdependence. These characteristics are expressed in a number of ways on women-owned or operated sustainable farms. Their farms, for example, have fewer acres than those of male farmers; they plant, cultivate, and harvest by hand …