Special Report

USDA sets up women farmers network

A new network to connect women farmers and agribusiness leaders has been set up by the USDA.

Deputy Ag Secretary Krysta Harden says by emailing [email protected] women farmers can get involved with each other and get information from the USDA. She tells Brownfield Ag News, “I can’t do it all myself. I was trying to do that – the kind of matching game, one-on-one and it’s just too many.”

Harden told Brownfield, at the recent Commodity Classic, that hundreds of women had signed up within the first week of the network’s creation. Harden says women farmers are involved in the business of agriculture and she cites an email she recently received, “The subject line was ‘not just a farm wife.’ That’s how she started her conversation with me. She wanted to be recognized for really the role she played in her family business of agriculture.”

Harden says this is part of her goal to increase the diversity of farmers on boards, commissions and county committees,
“We really need to be embracing everyone that’s out there. This is the greatest industry in the world. I love it to death and I just want to make sure that it stays strong.”

AUDIO:  Interview with Krysta Harden (6:30 mp3):