I was checking out the American Agriculturalist this morning and a piece headlined “Women Will ‘Rule’ Farming” definitely caught my attention. The article notes that during the next 20 years, 400 million acres of U.S. farmland will change hands and that women will inherit 75 percent. The numbers are even higher in the New England states, where women already own some 30 percent and in Connecticut and New Hampshire an exciting 40 percent of the farms.
That means women are poised to “shape the future of a farm business,” Lynda Brushett, of the Cooperative Development Institute, is quoted saying.
This Agriculturalist article is a teaser for a program coming up this month in Vermont (and later in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire): “Women, Families, Farmland: A Farm Transition Gathering for Vermont Women.”
The free programs (funded by the USDA Farm Service Agency) are supposed to help “senior” women figure out how to transition to ownership, pass on their land, “retire comfortably” and “ensure the agricultural future of their farmland.”
Virtual Farmgirl 