Unique Spaces for A Unique Program

Historically, the National No-Till Conference has always offered a Spouses Program to provide activities for those women attending the conference with their husbands. Usually comprised of activities to highlight all the host city has to offer; these events often include cooking classes,  shopping trips, historical tours, and more.  However, in recent years many women who’ve participated in the program have expressed a desire to diversify their experiences with more agriculture and conservation–based topics. American Farmland Trust’s Ohio agriculture stewardship manager, Ashley Brucker, got this message and decided to host a Women for the Land soil health learning circle at the 2020 National No Till conference in St. Louis, Missouri.

Women continue to expand their engagement in conservation and agricultural topics, particularly as we begin to acknowledge that a large number of women own land (over a third of land in the U.S. is owned by women and in many states, it is at least 50%) and manage land (in many states, women make up ~50% of the principal operators on farms). Therefore, we must ratchet up our efforts to engage women on these topics.