Iowa Women in Agriculture Advancing Climate Resilience

AFT’s Women for the Land national initiative is engaged in a three-year collaboration with the Women Food and Agriculture Network and Iowa State University to understand how women farmers and landowners in Iowa are coping with climate change and to develop peer-to-peer programming to support Iowa women in agriculture to become more climate resilient. Through listening sessions, peer-to-peer Learning Circles, action planning, and storytelling, this project will help advance a network of women farmers and landowners across Iowa who are working to adapt to and mitigate climate change-related impacts on their farms.

Profiles of Women in Iowa Agriculture

The following stories of Iowa women in agriculture highlight the ways that Iowa farmers and landowners are navigating weather and climate change related challenges and what they are doing to cope, stay inspired, and support each other. They are snapshots of stories happening throughout the state.

It’s a few small squares or rectangles on the map among all those many, many rectangles you see when you fly over, as most people do. My square is a part of that factory, but each part makes a difference so if you try to do right by your part, that’s what you can do. If everyone does their part in their sphere of influence, then we get there at scale. And being a part of groups like this can help expand that sphere of influence. – Palma Strand

Palma Strand

Non-operating Landowner in Webster County

Jessica Krupicka

Heritage Hill Farm owner and operator in Story County

Kim Andersen

Blueberry Bottom Farm owner and operator in Jefferson County

Watch More

Project Resources

Participant Documents

Research into Women in Agriculture

What are Learning Circles

In recent years, Iowa farmers have seen weather related challenges increase, impacting their bottom-lines and causing concern for what the future of farming holds in the state. From derechos to floods to drought conditions and shifting patterns in seasonality affecting plant and pest interactions, farmers and landowners in Iowa are observing changes that make the already difficult task of agriculture planning even more uncertain. The women engaged in this project have been proactively searching for and advancing strategies on their farms and in their communities that can help to manage the uncertainties of the future and plan for the resilience of their farms.

We’ve detected that you are using an outdated browser.