American Farmland Trust's Women for the Land Initiative
Originally posted on farmland.org
Written by April Anne Opatik
Over the past few decades, women have entered agriculture in unprecedented numbers. Increasingly, women own farmland, are new farmers or have become more involved in all aspects of agriculture.
There are now nearly one million women farm operators, and over half-a-million additional women landowners who lease their land to farmers. Nearly 301 million acres of U.S. land—about a third of the nation’s land in farms—are now farmed or co-farmed by women, and at least 87 million additional acres are in the hands of women landowners.
Over the next 20 years, about 371 million acres of farmland are expected to change hands as farmers retire or leave their land to the next generation. During that time, women and non-farming landlords are likely to increase in numbers.