‘From a circle of introductions’: adult learning and empowerment of women agricultural landowners

Abstract

This study is about adult learning and empowerment in a challenging context. The data from this study comes from interviews with women non-operating landowners who attended a learning circle event designed to inform them about conservation opportunities on their land. The findings show there were several aspects of the learning circles that resonated with the women – the type of learning that occurred (hands on and visual), the networking (with other female landowners) and specific conservation information (cover crops). The findings also show how the structure of the learning circle allowed for a Community of Practice, and the resultant environmental and social impacts that occurred from such a community.

Keywords:

• Communities of practice
• environmental education techniques
• women non-operating landowners

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the women landowners who provided us their time and insights on their learning circle experience. In addition, we are thankful to Utah State University’s Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Department for providing funding for both undergraduate and graduate research time and effort for this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Comparable information on WNOLs in other states does not exist.

2 Women, Food and Agriculture Network’s mission is to engage women in building an ecological and just food and agricultural system through individual and community power (wfan.org).

3 The WCL curriculum manual can be found at: http://www.wfan.org/curriculum-manual/

4 AFT is a national non-profit organization with a mission to ‘save the land that sustains us by protecting farmland, promoting sound farming practices, and keeping farmers on the land’ (https://www.farmland.org/mission-history).  

5 The counts provided include any woman who indicated these aspects as their #1 or #2 pick.

6 The counts provided include any woman who indicated these actions as their #1 or #2 pick.

7 FSA is the Farm Service Agency, whose mission is “equitably serving all farmers, ranchers, and agricultural partners through the delivery of effective, efficient agricultural programs for all Americans” (https://www.fsa.usda.gov/about-fsa/history-and-mission/index).

8 It is important to note that not all conversations about conservation were readily received. For example, several women indicated while the meeting inspired/motivated them to talk to their farmer about cover crops, it did not necessarily mean the farmer was receptive. As one 63 year old landowner told us, ‘After I learned about cover crops, I said this is the way to go. And I did read about it, and they’re saying like in 3 to 5 years that the tide turns and it becomes very profitable to do that if everything goes according to plan, and I asked [the farmer] once, would they be interested in doing cover crops, and definitely they were not.’ While ideally all farmers would be receptive to conservation practices, perhaps the more important point here is that some women did speak to their farmers to let them know what they wanted done on their land.

9 We thank an anonymous reviewer for this insight

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peggy Petrzelka

Peggy Petrzelka is Professor of Sociology at Utah State University. Her research focuses on interrelationships between the physical and social environment in a number of settings—from rural Midwestern agricultural communities to rural Texas communities undergoing oil and gas drilling to migrant communities in Spain and Morocco.

Mary Briggs Ott

Mary Briggs Ott is an undergraduate double major in Sociology and Finance at Utah State University, with a focus on gender in the workplace.

Ennea Fairchild

Ennea Fairchild is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at Utah State University with a focus in Natural Resource and Environmental Sociology.

Jennifer Filipiak

Jennifer Filipiak is Midwest Director for American Farmland Trust (AFT). She leads AFT’s “Women for the Land” national initiative which addresses the obstacles that women landowners, particularly those who do not farm but lease their land to farmers, face in accessing conservation programs and resources.