I’ve come a long way since that day I was startled awake at 5 a.m. by the smell of slurry drifting in my bedroom and thinking the world was coming to a loud and smelly end, eight years ago. Before that day, I was a city girl. Born and raised just north of Brussels, my only contact with farmers was via the news or from a good distance on the road, driving to the stables for my horse riding sessions.
Never in a million years did I expect to become so interested and engaged in the agricultural industry after a few years of living on the countryside. It started small, by asking my partner – who does have a background in agriculture – about the things I saw in the fields around our house.
A whole new world opened when I discovered this complete new language that is agriculture jargon as a translator, doing research for my first projects in the industry. Even later, when I started helping out on our neighbours’ dairy farm, I first felt the pride of a job well done, of ‘my’ cows munching away after a morning of milking, cleaning and feeding. It was incredible! I started asking the farmer questions and as a consequence of those early morning conversations with her, started realising just how much women in agriculture do. Maybe that’s where the idea of a magazine about the women in our industry first sprouted.
Today is International Women’s Day. It only seemed appropriate, to me to publish this very first “Women in Ag” today and pay tribute to the strong, hard-working and talented women of our sector by telling their stories.
I hope you enjoy reading this magazine as much as I enjoyed making it.
Happy reading!
Kim Schoukens,
Editor in chief.
