"How to Launch a Women Farmer Network in Your Community" is a guide that offers ideas and inspiration for women farmers to organize local networks. With support from an NCR-SARE Partnership Grant, the Soil Sisters network of southern Wisconsin compiled learning and insight from its founding members. The toolkit includes twelve case studies of these founding Soil Sisters, providing personal farmer reflections on best practices for network organizing.
This toolkit focuses on building connections between women farmers, particularly in rural areas, who are committed to sustainable agriculture, conservation, and land stewardship. It also seeks to support those interested in developing ongoing, lasting connections in their home region.
Toolkit Goals:
- Provide practical resources and ideas to gather women in your region to build an ongoing, lasting network.
- Offer tangible guidance on facilitating such gatherings based on potlucks and the learning circle model, where research has shown women learn best.
- Highlight insights and advice from women farmers seasoned in such work through first-person stories.
The writers use the terms “women” and “female” throughout this resource from the perspective of welcome and inclusivity for anyone women-identifying on the gender spectrum.
Want more information? See the related SARE grant:
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.