Jezebel: Farming

Colombian Company Uses Butterflies To Change Women's Lives

Cassie Murdoch — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:50:00 EST

A valley in Palmira, Colombia, which was once war-torn and filled with little economic opportunity has been transformed by two women, Patricia Restrepo and her daughter Vanessa. Ten years ago, the women started a butterfly export business called Alas de Colombia after they noticed that there was a growing demand for butterflies at places like nature museums. More »

The Butterflies Are Dying

Anna North — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:07:00 EDT

Farmers' new, extremely effective methods of killing milkweed are having an unintended effect — a decline in the population of monarch butterflies, which lay their eggs on the weed. Also at risk are rainbows, ponies, shooting stars, and the entire oeuvre of Lisa Frank. More »

Pioneer Woman Makes Blogging Look Like Paradise

Anna North — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:15:00 EDT

She hasn't quite got the old-media fame of mommy blogger Heather Armstrong, but Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond is making headlines — and cash. What makes her life on the ranch so popular with readers? More »

A Gorgeous Harvest Gathering

Jessica Coen — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:58:00 EST

[Herat, Afghanistan, November 8: Women separate stigmas from saffron crocuses during the harvest. Around 2500 farmers in eight provinces are working on saffron farms for export mostly to India and some European countries.]

So You Think You Want To Farm?

Jessie Knadler — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:30:00 EDT

The recent resurgence in gardening, canning, butchering and home-brewing has given rise to another rustic, do-it-yourself pursuit: Taking a hiatus from one's real life to go work for a season on an organic farm. More »

Bird By Bird

Anna Holmes — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:10:00 EST

[San Francisco, November 16. Image via Getty]

No Friend Of A Farmer

Anna Holmes — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:10:00 EDT

[Qaryut, West Bank; October 27. Image via Getty]

Fountain Of Youth

Anna Holmes — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:15:00 EDT

[Paris, October 1. Image via Getty]

On The Fence

Anna Holmes — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:10:00 EDT

[Cambria, Wisconsin; August 27. Image via Getty]

Friend Of A Farmer

Anna Holmes — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:10:00 EDT

[Sarajevo, August 26. Image via Getty]

It's Not Easy Being Green

Anna Holmes — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:10:00 EDT

[Berlin, May 25. Image via Getty]

Farmer Girl

Sadie Stein — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:30:00 EST

A new Census of Agriculture shows that the number of female farmers has gone up 30 percent since 2002, an increase spurred in part by the growth of the organic market. [UPI] More »

Humane Society Prez Says A Vote For Obama Is A Vote For Animals

Anna North — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:40:00 EST

More precisely, Humane Society president Wayne Pacelle says Sarah Palin has a "very hostile record toward animal protection." But Pacelle has other fish to not fry this election day: the Humane Society is backing Prop. 2, a California measure that would insure the humane treatment of farm animals. Pacelle's Ken-doll mug has been all over the news in anticipation of the measure — he was in last week's New York Times magazine, and today he tells Time what he thinks about meat, Palin, and PTSD. More »

Meet Barbara Shinn: vintner, restauranteur,...

Anna Holmes — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:20:00 EDT

Meet Barbara Shinn: vintner, restauranteur, farmer. Shinn is one of six female farmers profiled in yesterday's NY Times magazine. Reports Melissa Breyer: "There are 80 percent more women who are farmers than there were 20 years ago in the United States, even as the number of farms has decreased, according to the Department of Agriculture. In the Northeast alone, nearly 20,000 farms are run by women." More on some of those women, as well as a series of portraits, can be found here. [NY Times] More »

Women Are The Economic Backbone Of The New Rwanda

Jessica G. — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:30:00 EDT

Those Rwandan women who are employed making "peace baskets" for Macy's — a job that helps them to repair the fissures of the ethnic civil war that saw the deaths of some 800,000 people fourteen years ago? They are part of a wave of women helping to lift Rwanda out of the poverty caused by the Hutu/Tutsi conflict. Not surprisingly, the economic and political contributions of women are the main fuel for Rwanda's current economic revival. According to Washington Post's Anthony Faiola, the genocide of Tutsis by Hutu militias and subsequent retributions left Rwanda with a population that's 60% female. This, along with new laws passed in 1999 that allowed women to inherit property, left the door open for more women to start businesses, even though in Rwanda's more patriarchal society, many women must still ask their husbands for permission before making economic choices. Now, women are running coffee plantations and graining mills, and often, they're out-earning their male counterparts. More »