Growth In Organic Food Demand Provides Opportunities For Women Farmers

With Canadian farming characterized by highly-mechanized, high-yield, large-scale farms, the growth in demand for organic good is providing opportunities for women to become more involved in what has become a male-dominated industry. Although women have played a key part in family farming businesses, they often didn’t get the recognition they deserved, and their role has decreased as farm sizes increased. Today, 30 percent of organic farmers are women. They seem better suited to smaller-scale farming: they are less focused on yield and profit, and more focused on the community and family health. According to one female organic farmer, women are changing the face of farming in Canada, with a long-term perspective that recognizes food needs to be produced sustainably.