Happy International Day of Rural Women to all the hard-working women in ag!
It is no coincidence that we chose this thirtieth edition of this day, picked by the UN to celebrate and call attention to the achievements of women in agriculture, as the day to launch our latest magazine.
There is a lot of news to share in this issue. First of all: the winners of the Women in Ag Awards 2025 are announced! In just four editions of this award, we have evolved towards a whopping 140 applicants from all continents. A formidable task for the jury to watch and rate all these entries over the summer, and even though we wished we could put all of them on the stage, choices had to be made. You can meet the winners here.
FIRA USA, the agrobotics fair, also launched an award for women this year. The women in agrobotics – a field that is still very much male-dominated- awards will be celebrated on October 23rd. We are thrilled by this initiative, aimed to give women in this field the visibility they deserve. Read all about these awards here.
As always, the magazine features several encounters with women farmers. Our first one is a double interview with Valeria and Serena, two Italian farmers in the mountainous northern region of Italy. We also meet Dr. Zeinab AL-Momany, first runner-up in the Women in Ag Awards, farmer and champion for women in agriculture in Jordan. Jenny Holtermann, an almond farmer from California, tells us her story in our third encounter. Last but not least, we talked to Welsh farmer Anna Bowen her work and the need for women-only awards in agriculture.
One of the candidates for the Awards who impressed us personally is Manisha Lath Gupta, a city dweller turned permaculture farmer who built up a huge audience on YouTube and Instagram. She is this issue’s Influencer.
This issue’s Outsider is Evy Mettepenningen, a Belgian farmer and lecturer at the Odisee University of Applied Sciences at the Agro-Bio department. Read all about Evy here.
In our Mental Health column, Do More Agriculture Foundation Director, Merle Massie, tells us about the importance of really listening through a poignant personal experience. Read her beautiful piece here.
As always, columnists Yemisi Dorcas and Judith De Vor delivered on-point articles, honouring the women in agriculture on this 15th of October. Finally, our editor Antoon read Stephanie Anderson’s latest book From The Ground Up and reviewed it for you.
We hope you enjoy reading this brand new issue of Women in Ag Magazine as much as we have enjoyed creating it.
Happy reading!
Kim.
