Farmer Jane: Changing the way our country eats and farms

Temra Costa talks about how women are quietly leading the food and farming revolution in America.

By Amanda Kimble-Evans

Temra Costa puts the spotlight on the women in her first book Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat. She brings together farmers, educators, mothers, chefs, business women and policy wonks, and profiles the work they’re doing to cultivate new paths to carry good food from seed to stomach. Costa celebrates the agricultural renaissance taking place and maintains a feminine approach to our food system is what is really driving much of the change.

Profile: Temra Costa Temra Costa is a nationally recognized sustainable food and farming advocate who cooks, gardens and writes in the East Bay of California. Temra co-hosts a weekly radio show, The Queens of Green, blogs about food and farming, and is happily immersed in the logistics of growing, preserving, and preparing food. Her recent book, Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat is the culmination of the past seven years she has spent working to promote a more vibrant local food economy in California and beyond. In addition to the book, she has written for numerous publications on hot-button issues such as Farm to School, eating locally, food safety, and how to create regional food systems. Her previous role as statewide director of California’s Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign, and other positions held with Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), worked to engage stakeholders in our food system, from farm to fridge.

Tell me a little bit about how you came to write this book? What inspired you?

TC: I had been working with Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) for years and found myself surrounded by women. Even if a farm was run by a couple, it would often be the woman that would be reaching out. It was always in the back of my head as something that was a growing phenomenon; whether I was in meetings or organizing events.

When it became apparent that women were becoming a lot more active as a group, I started to realize this was a trend that had some real meaning for the agricultural community as a whole. Organizations such as the Women Food and Agriculture Network or the Pennsylvania Women's Agricultural Network, have been leading the charge on these initiatives for over a decade.

How did you choose the 30 women profiled in Farmer Jane?

TC: At the time I was writing Farmer Jane, I was also the director of the California Buy Fresh, Buy Local (BFBL), a program of CAFF, and, therefore, was part of a national network with Food Routes who administers the program on a national level. BFBL is actually active in over 40 states. I created a nomination form and asked people to recommend women change-makers in the food and farming community.

The response was amazing. And many were such heartfelt letters. These were inspirational stories that just haven’t been told. And people want to know these stories. People want to bring the knowledge of sustainable food and farming home in a more integral way.

I had hoped to represent the entire U.S. geographically, but since I was working full time while writing the book, I just didn’t have enough time. So, we’ve built out the Farmer Jane website to continue to profile innovative women from around the country.

You talk about the concept of “femininity” in relation to agriculture, and to business as a whole. Do you see this characteristic as something innately female?

TC: Women now have a few decades in the workforce under out belts and just the presence of women in the conversation changes the form of the process. There is a shift from only profit driven motives to the triple bottom line--people, planet, profit. The truth is, the entire green economy is a feminine based approach to business.

Men that are already into sustainability embrace the information, and those that aren’t, feel threatened by it. However, more and more, men are starting to utilize these feminine characteristics of relationship-based thinking, community, and caring for the health and well-being of others at home and in the workforce.

What do you think is driving the growth of women in the agricultural community? Do you think the organic movement has played a part?

TC: The demand for local food is creating more a comfortable niche for women. These women are really good at marketing and multitasking and selling their products and are oftentimes transitioning from corporate America to start sustainable farms.

The women-in-farming trend has been on the radar of the organic community and there will often be workshops aimed at female farmers, but it hasn’t received any prominence in the agenda. And to me, that’s strange. One out of every ten farmers in America is a woman, and we make up 60% of the staff of non-profit sustainable agricultural organizations in this county.

Perhaps we’re seeing women in agriculture more now because the support system for these alternative forms of farming is starting to meet up with demand. We need to continue to push the bar within the sustainable food system to reflect a more accurate representation of what is going on in the field.

How did you come up with the title since I noticed not all the women you profile are actually farmers?

TC: One of the original titles tossed around was Women, Dirt and Food. But, there was a bigger message in the book: that all of us are “Farmer Janes.” I am Farmer Jane, you’re Farmer Jane. We all have the power to change the way our country eats and farms. And in the book, I tell people how to do it and hope they are inspired by these stories of women that have built their lives around food, education, good health, and advocacy.