Women lead a farming revolution in Iowa

“As a whole,” says Ms. Eells, “these women have a strong view of land as community – as a source of food and water for animals, birds, as well as people – rather than just producing a commodity. But while that conservation ethic makes them natural allies for agricultural conservation programs, women often feel their views are out of sync [with state or federal programs].”

Partly it’s because women don’t know or use standard terminology to talk about land conservation, Eells says. Partly it’s that agricultural system representatives tend to think and talk production – even when discussing conservation, she adds.

“If a woman brings up something about farming, and a man blusters authoritatively about it, women are socialized to just clam up,” Eells says. “So to the extent that a woman landowner starts discussing conservation, there are a lot of reasons why this might not go well.”

Male farmers and state agricultural officers echo Eells’s view. John Bruene, a district conservationist for the US Department of Agriculture, says women landowners are increasingly voicing their concerns to him. “We do deal with a majority male population in the farming community,” he says. “But there’s also been some new awareness that women owners out there want a say in how things are done. They are finding they don’t have to just do whatever their tenant wants them to do.”

As a result, his USDA department is focusing more on ways to educate women in the lingo of conservation and also to “reach out to a group that maybe we haven’t done that well reaching before.”

Mr. Bruene and Jim Serbousek, a county soil commissioner, spoke to – and took questions from – a Women Caring for the Land meeting of women landowners in Linn County. Mr. Serbousek, who farms his own land and is a tenant farmer for 10 landlords, says he heard plenty from the dozen or so women present.

He’d never dealt with that many women landowners before. “I was surprised; they didn’t hold back,” he says. “I was stressing that they need to have communication and cooperation with their tenants. They asked right back: ‘Well, how do you keep communication going when the only time you see [the tenant farmer] is when they sign a lease?’ ”

Still, he’s not surprised older women have conservation concerns not shared by younger tenants farming their land.

Willing to lower the rent
For most young farmers, “it’s economics, the almighty dollar, that speaks,” Serbousek says. “That’s where communication comes in. If the tenant does more conservation, I told the ladies, ‘Maybe you could lower the rent.’ ”

To his surprise, many women said they would gladly lower the rent if tenants followed good practices. But “if they’re going to tear up the fields, I’m definitely going to have to charge full rent.”

Carolyn Palmer, who grew up on the Linn County farm where she and her father were born, has lived on the same 90 acres for 50 years. She is determined to preserve its beauty and productivity.

But in the three years since her husband died, Mrs. Palmer says, she’s noticed that the tenant was slicing off a little more each year from waterways – the 30-foot-wide grassy strips beside streams required to prevent erosion. Not long ago she went out and measured: Sure enough, he’d shaved off a foot or so.

She’s also unhappy that crop rotation has changed from corn, oats, and hay to just corn and soybeans – which she says has harmed her land.

“I’m sure there is more erosion since we don’t have a field of hay – and the reason for this has to be profit,” she says. “If I had my druthers, I would shift back to another rotation,” even if it cut profits.

Still, as women like Palmer and Doermann get more active in conservation statewide, Ms. O’Brien, the farmer, sees potential for environmental progress – especially if farm programs can reach more women.

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