(L. to r.) Laura Krouse, Linda Halsey, Carolyn Palmer, and Margaret Doermann of Iowa want their tenant farmers to care for the land more.
(Mark Clayton)Photos (1 of 1)
Women lead a farming revolution in Iowa
As wives inherit husbands’ farmland, they stress conservation over maximizing profit.
By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor/ February 25, 2009 edition
Staff writer Mark Clayton discusses some of the issues women farm owners in Iowa are dealing with.
Staff writer Mark Clayton
Mount Vernon, Iowa
Women own nearly half of Iowa’s farmland. But they find they have a common problem: The men they hire to farm their land often don’t treat it with the tender care they expect – and often won’t listen when they complain about it.
Women from three counties near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, discovered the shared view in a series of meetings on “Women Caring for the Land.” Dozens have turned out to learn more about farmland conservation – and to share tales of dealing with their tenant farmers.
Margaret Doermann’s Iowa farm has some of the richest soil in the state, which is why she insists it be farmed the way her husband did, using strong conservation practices to preserve it. So it was a shock to discover the tenant farmer she’d hired after her husband’s passing was treating her land like, well – a rental property.
“I was awakened in the middle of the night by a tractor tilling the hillside,” Mrs. Doermann says. Her husband “had always tilled it in a contour [across the hillside] to limit erosion. But when I went out the next morning, that hill had been tilled up and down so the soil would wash right off.”
Doermann’s rude awakening didn’t end there. The water in the stream near the field looked like “brown gravy” – full of soil runoff from the hillside. She and her daughter wound up in a lawyer’s office arguing with the farmer over how to till the hillside. A new lease now specifies the soil preparation she wants.
“Well, you know what?” Doermann said to three women at a small gathering of farm-land owning women last month. “The very next spring, he did it again.”
Doermann’s experience is hardly unique, experts say. Of Iowa’s 30.7 million farm acres, 47 percent are owned by women. But a growing share – 20 percent – is now owned by single women, many of them older, with a far different take on farming than their male counterparts. About three-quarters of the land owned by single women is rented out to mostly male tenant farmers.
While most women still own farmland for income purposes, “almost 30 percent of single female owners say they own it primarily for family or sentimental reasons, not income,” says Michael Duffy, an economist at Iowa State University who does a regular survey of land ownership. (More farm wives are inheriting farmland as their husbands pass on.)
Those “sentimental reasons” often translate into conservation concerns – with animal habitat, environment, and water quality high on the list. Women land owners care more about land preservation than about maximizing crop yield – with potentially large implications for farming practices, the findings show.
Among more than 800 Iowa farm women who recorded their views on farmland ownership in 2006, most listed conservation as a high priority, according to the “Women, Land and Legacy” report conducted by Iowa State and US Department of Agriculture researchers.
Women show a “clear and strong consciousness about land-health issues and respect nature intrinsically – not for its productive value, but because it sustains life,” the report found. Women also support conservation to ensure the land will be productive for future generations and because the land provides “physical and mental health and healing benefits.”
An environment-minded generation
“We now have this generation of women, many of them older, now engaged in learning more about agricultural conservation,” says Denise O’Brien, a full-time farmer who nearly became Iowa’s first female secretary of agriculture in 2006. “I hope women will feel empowered to say: ‘I want a waterway, buffer strips, and trees on my farm.’ When women say that today, men pretty much roll their eyes and think that they don’t know enough to make these decisions.”
Jean Eells, a sociologist who focuses on environmental education, has studied how Iowa’s large share of older women who own farmland are faring in getting their land-conservation views heard.
“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.
( More stories )
Comments
2. Sandy | 02.25.09
I’m sorry, but, as written, I find this situation another of lame acceptance of male domination by so many women in this country. If the laborers for these farm owners are not worthy of their hire, then why is their remuneration allowed to continue? It’s all very sweet to profess a love for conservation but quite another to have the power to enforce its practice and not do so. So, coming off my high horse, I’m sure I’m missing something and wonder, while feeling the lack of communication, if this “something” couldn’t be more clearly spelled out?
3. Keith | 02.26.09
As someone who grew up farming up in alberta I can see both sides of this. However I think it’s clear the women need to be more accurate and clear in their expectations of the tenats. It makes perfect sense that the landlord, for the sake of nutrient conservation, should demand a certain crop rotation. If the farmer owned the land himself he has a stake in it’s long term productivity. He would be worried about the nutrient balance and the state of the land.
Chemical fertilizers destroy the bacterial ecosystem of the soil which leads to decreased nutrient conversion, leading to the need for more fertilizer, which jacks the cost and increases the need for a higher priced, higher yield crop like soy and corn.
What may be needed more then anything is a universal soil health measurement done an per annum basis. Something these ladies could tie back to the tenant and say, look you’ve removed x y and z amounts from the soil with this crop from it’s baseline, your pay this penalty. Or hey, you’ve added x y and z to the soil with this crop, your rent rebate for next year is this.
This is all very doable, you almost need a property management company willing to act as middleman between the tenant farmer and the owners. Someone who knows how to do these tests and knows how to look out for the land.
4. Mary Swalla Holmes | 02.26.09
The Women, Food and Agriculture Network had been working for ten years to bring women landowners together to learn from each other and develop strategies to put conservation practices on their land. And its a great bunch of caring women!
5. Aminah Yaquin Carroll | 02.26.09
Hi i am a pocket farmer, also female elder (mid-fifties), former New Yorker, but raised in Massachusetts dairy farm country.
This is a terrifically informative and inspiring resource article.
thank you.
7. Tim | 02.26.09
Not sure why this is presented as a gender issue. Is there any evidence that women owners favor conservation more than men owners? It appears that at least some of these women are simply trying to follow the same practices their husbands followed - where’s the gender issue in that?
If landowners are renting to tenant farmers at fixed rates, they should not be surprised their tenants attempt to maximize production at the expense of long-term soil health. The owners created the financial incentive! Restructure the leases to create economic value for conservation practices, and suddenly tenants will become conservationists. Gender is irrelevant.
(It would help if corn and soybeans, and chemical agriculture in general, weren’t so monstrously subsidized. But good luck getting traction for that idea in Iowa.)
8. Sean | 02.26.09
Perhaps there’s an opportunity here for people who would like to farm but don’t have access to land. If they’re willing to learn a method of farming that is in harmony with the desire of the landowners, we can create a whole new generation of sustainable farms.
9. Chris | 02.26.09
I agree with Tim’s comment, why is this being presented as a gender issue?
We have a family farm in Missouri that we rent out and getting tenants to contour plow and not till too far into your drainage waterways has always been a challenge. After having said that, I applaud these women for their efforts at land stewardship; I wish more people had a similar longer-term attitude towards our natural resources.
10. Leigh Adcock | 02.27.09
Anyone who witnessed the horrific soil loss from Iowa cropland during last year’s major flooding would not have to ask whether male farmers, who make up the vast majority of conventional farmers in Iowa as elsewhere, favor conservation less than women landowners. Certainly federal policy drives agriculture, and many men would be better stewards if subsidies rewarded stewardship rather than over-production of the handful of commodities that support a mono-culture-based industrial food system.
But USDA census data show that the number of women farmers is rising while the number of men declines, and that women are more likely to own small-market, niche and specialty farm businesses that are more sustainable than conventional farms environmentally, socially and economically. Clearly, when women are given the opportunity to make decisions about the type of agriculture practiced on their land, whether as farmers or landowners, they typically act on the sustainable values they claim to hold in surveys.
11. Cynthia Vagnetti | 02.28.09
As Leigh Adcock explains the operational factor…”when women are given the opportunity to make decisions” statistics and numbers show as well as qualitatively the decisions are often made “not with the ‘bottom line’ in mind” but with the restoration of the natural resources, the community and the health of the land.
America, like all countries with an abundance of natural resources were systematically naturalized with the notion of extracting for commercial purposes and with an attitude of organizing the landscape for commercial control. The “lettered, male European eye held the system and categorized the system as natural history. Agriculture is part of the an age-old story of “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy”…the women caring for the land and nourishing it back to health are the very women who reclaiming the wholeness and goodness for male well-being. For males who are experiencing the crisis of patriarchal masculinity, NOT masculinity.
12. Dallas Adair | 02.28.09
This is such a heart-warming article. I am approaching retirement (I’m 62), and have been looking for land either here in Australia or New Zealand, but in both countries the rural land has been thrashed by decades of slashing and burning and over-use of chemicals.
There are communities in both countries, of course, where the priorities are conservation and “Land Care” in the true sense - but they’re not easy to find. And most government regulations regarding land-use still seem to embody the old - predominantly male? - notions of “conquering” the land.
Thank you for this article. Very inspiring. And good luck to all the men who are trying to change the culture!
13. Bonny | 03.01.09
As a young aspiring (and former, having grown up on a dairy farm in Minnesota and left home for my education) farmer, I am glad to see that someone cares about land conservation, male or female. It’s disappointing to learn that, after the precarious state American agriculture is in, there are still people using horrible farming practices. I want nothing more than to have a small, sustainable mixed-crop farm, and pray for an opportunity to do this. I hope these landowners are still around when I am ready to rent or buy agricultural land. Heaven forbid they end up selling to large land-holders after being worn down by irresponsible tenants.
14. Sue | 03.02.09
The article highlights an important trend in Iowa agriculture. The author should have been more careful though in checking facts. Iowa has already had a female secretary of agriculture and Mike Duffy is with Iowa State University Extension.
Perhpas we need to go back to more 50/50 crop sharing so that there is a stronger vested interest in perserving the soil. Or better yet, that these women would allow young farmers a chance to buy the land instead of requiring them to pay the high and going cash rent.
15. ehswan | 03.02.09
According to the UN, Norway enjoys the best quallity of life on the planet, based on level of education, per capita income and longevity. Norway also has the highest level of women in government in the world. Coincidence? I don’t think so! According to other studies I have read women are far more united in their interests, namely, health, social wellfare, and conservation, (of is the old fashioned kind, like caring for the planet that sustains us) than men are. Sooo, this article about women landholders makes sense to me.
16. DM Maze | 03.02.09
Perhaps some of these women could put as much of their land as possible in the CRP program. That will let the land rest and keep it covered to prevent erosion. Her bottom line may not be as black as charging full rent, but she might feel better when she sees the land come back to its natural state.
17. sharon | 03.03.09
Tim has nailed it: This is not a gender issue, but a landowner/renter issue.
A sociologist is quoted as saying, “As a whole, 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.”
What’s unsustainable here, from the standpoint of the HUMAN community, is tennant farming. Sheesh! Do people really think they’re going to have sustainable agriculture, care for the land and its birds and beasts, and a non-extractive approach to the land, where they have tennant farming? Tennant farming, as an economic and land tenure model, is by its very nature extractive and exploitive. Its first tenet is to be extractive and exploitive vis-a-vis other humans.
How can ANYONE suppose it to be possible to foster an appropriate relationship to the land or to other people on the tennat farming model? It absolutely buggers the imagination. This is perhaps the most abusive and extractive model of land tenure there is, except for maybe plantation slavery.
18. Steve | 03.03.09
I’m so happy to see that people actually still do care about their land in the corn belt (I’m from NC, and all I hear about is corn and soybean-related destruction of land).
Plowing up and down a hill?! Heck, I’m only a very small-scale farmer, and I know not to do that! I guess if it ain’t your land, who cares about soil conservation, right?! Whoever does that deserves to be greatly in debt to John Deere and Monsanto.
19. Alyssa | 03.04.09
I think that people are getting upset over an issue that they may not understand, or that they may not want to admit is a problem. Many people like to say that there are no gender issues “anymore,” but they forget that the people involved are not necessarily of the same age or background, and that different generations (and different regions) have different issues.
The article mentions that many of these women are older and are inheriting the land after their husbands die. This leads me to believe that they didn’t have much or any say in the management of the land before their husbands died. Also, the article mentions that the women tend to “clam up” around men because they are not looked at as knowledgeable in the area of farming. _That_ would be a gendered point of view, and it is not coming from the article’ author, but the people interviewed.
In addition, the article clearly states “As a whole,” says Ms. Eells, “these women have a strong view of land as community…” The article is not pitching this as a gender issue, the women involved are making the commentary.
Gender _is_ an issue, whether we want it to be one or not. We have genders, the people of each different gender act/react differently based on many, many factors, one of which is their gender. It’s unavoidable.
There are tenant/landowner problems here, but the article is about women who are stepping into new roles and the problems they are encountering.
20. peoplepowergranny | 03.08.09
Hey, I grew up in Iowa, and I know it’s a very male-oriented culture there. Women have always been told to take care of the house and shut up. By the way, I have a daughter and her partner who are looking for a farm to settle down on, but are land poor, and basically poor period. But they are smart, strong and motivated. Get in touch with me if you need farmhands who want to get back on the farm and raise kids there eventually. You can contact me at the website above as a comment.
21. Tamara Davis | 03.09.09
So now that we have cleared the air and discovered that there is a very real communication problem between male and female and that us northern white females have indeed been taught to, “Hush up and let the man talk at you,”…now what? Do we demand that these women relinquish all their property rights of ownership and their deep roots to the land in order to get the males to stop treating their farmsteads like rental property? NO! CRP is a viable, but partial alternative. Gents,LISTEN and LEARN from these women. The farming women have been listening to our loved ones and have learned FAR MORE about the profitable and sustainable ways to harvest from these lands than a lot of men want to believe. Leave the lands in our hands that ours and yours may ALL inherit. Ladies, encourage your renters with incentives when they care for your lands! Yearly soil testing is easily done.
22. Pat | 04.23.09
I thought the terms of service lists that it will not publish comments that are defamatory, yet there is plenty of male bashing sprinkled throughout several comments, and has gotten far from the issue of tenant farming. Making generalizations and unsubstatiated claims only fosters resentment and continues the cycle. It is helpful to know that there is still an issue with respect to gender, and bringing this to the attention of all americans is vital–but throwing all men into the same catagory is not a true or valid argument. Women’s voices, comments and expertise should be a part of the dialogue in any issue, not because they’re women–but because they are fellow human beings. If we don’t start from this platform, we will just continue the cycle and deepen the wounds.
I applaude the women for standing up against the misuse of our precious natural resources, as well as all whom are trying to make a difference.
23. marietta bernstorff | 06.10.09
Would like to show them our web page of 200 women working to save native corn from Mexico, Canada, United States and Cuba. This is also a traveling exhibition which be nice to bring this exhibit so they can participate in Iowa and join forces with the other 250 women. You can google our page and find out what we are doing we will post this link to our page as well. thank you
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1. Connie Kirk | 02.25.09
It is wonderful to hear about this, I am an older woman that is learning to be a bee keeper in Florida, for the same reason these women are preserving their land, beauty & long term productivity. What an amazing enriching thing it is to care about this beautiful earth.