The new Women in Ag magazine has arrived and it is packed full of sunshine!
In this issue, we take you to Toledo (Spain) where we attended the ICAR conference in the beautiful historic center of the city and met Marta Cuesta and Patricia Garzarán, two city girls who went to the mountains for a summer and stayed for love. Today, they help raising heritage Avileña Negra Iberica cows up in the beautiful Sistema Central mountain range. We talk being a woman on a farm, the beautiful but endangered tradition of transhumance and hopes for the future before taking you for an overview of the ICAR conference.
Our second encounter takes us to the UK, where another city girl decided to become a first generation farmer breeding an English heritage pork breed. The Oxford Sandy and Black pig have become Lisa Corcoran‘s life and passion! On the other side of the ocean, newly turned rancher and influencer Jess Perigo talks about turning her life upside down to join her dad on the ranch and trying to educate a non ag audience through social media. Jess is this issue’s influencer!
She’s French, she loves high heels and she writes about pigs and poultry: meet Mathilde Brion, our outsider and one of the jury members for the Women in Ag Awards! Also French but definitely not in high heels on a typical day is Laurie Poussier, a farmers’ daughter who decided to change things up and create her own line of soaps, shampoos and skincare products made from… cowmilk!
This issue’s focus on mental health explores working with family, a common situation in agriculture. Our columnist Erica Leniczek helps you navigate this sometimes delicate work situation.
We all agree that empowering women in agriculture is very positive, but did you know this can actually strengthen global food security? Melanie Epp dives into this subject in her column!
Transhumance again in Antoon’s latest book review! He read Ilse Köhler-Rollefson’s “Hoofprints on the land” focused precisely on how livestock, that is often seen as the cause of climate change nowadays, can in fact help solve this global problem we are facing.
Last but not least, we reveal the international jury for the Women in Ag Awards, organised in collaboration with the DLG, in this issue! Meet the jury who will choose who gets an award during the ceremony at Agritechnica this autumn and don’t forget to submit your nomination!
I wish you a beautiful summer, a good harvest and most of all: happy reading!
Kim.
