Why the Farm Bill Matters to Women
Published on March, 10 2023
by Rickey Gard Diamond
Women, Money & Democracy Committee
April 2023
WILPF’s issue committees Earth Democracy and Women, Money & Democracy have a strong interest in this year’s United States Farm Bill. If you think it doesn’t apply to you, ask yourself if there’s hunger in your town, or if grocery prices are through the roof—or if you plan to eat? Men of corporate, industrial America traditionally craft the Farm Bill. Not this year! Women and young people are demanding what’s good for our children and our Mother Earth.
Read my latest column for Ms. Magazine, "As the U.S. Looks to Revamp the Farm Bill, Women Must Be at the Table". In the column, I explain that, historically, “instead of our mothers’ fruits and vegetables, the U.S. Farm Bill largely subsidizes wheat, corn, and soybeans—most needed by global farmers and ranchers growing meat for our barbecues.” Meanwhile, a “land grab” is taking place such that “A whole new generation of younger, female, Indigenous, Black, Latinx and queer farmers are contending with land prices out of reach, and old attitudes that minimize the healthier, more sustainable production they seek.”
But WFAN (the Women, Food and Agriculture Network) brings together “hundreds of formidable and experienced women passionately involved in food security.” At a December 2022 conference, “They not only highlighted the racial and gendered inequities; they offered exciting solutions.”
Author Rickey Gard Diamond serves on the Women, Money & Democracy committee and writes a regular column at Ms. Magazine: Women Unscrewing Screwnomics. Each column ends with links to www.WILPFUS.org and our allied educational non-profit An Economy of Our Own.
