Urban agriculture can be a starting place for women farmers

In North America, women more commonly are the farmer’s wife than the farmer, notes Modern Farmer. In Canada, 27 percent of farm operators are women. In the United States, 14 percent of farms are headed by women. “Culture maintained the practice of transferring land and farming knowledge from father to son, while women accessed land through their husbands,” says the article. Given the daunting cost of land and equipment for commodity crops, “the solution for the young urbanite … could be looking within the city – or even in her own home.” That’s the route chosen by Vanessa Hanel, who grows micro-greens in her basement in Calgary and sells them at a farmer’s market that attracts 10,000 people a week. Says Hanel, “Urban farming isn’t easy, but if you have the drive to do it, there’s so much opportunity to succeed – and you don’t need to own land to do it.”

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