Women for the Land—American Farmland Trust
I attended American Farmland Trusts Food for Thought seminar today, Investing in Women. Strengthening Land. Sustaining Communities. The hour opened with news I hadn’t heard: 2026 is the International Year of the Woman Farmer. The United States and 122 other countries petitioned the UN for the designation, and it was approved in May 2024. Our host Jenny Moffitt, who helped lead that effort while in government, noted that women farm over half the world’s food. In the U.S., women farm or co-farm 43% of farmland, nearly 388 million acres.
The Work
Women for the Land began in the Midwest, where women were inheriting farmland and AFT’s first goal was to equip non-operating landowners to make decisions about it. Stephanie Castle, who leads the program in New York and the Northeast, and Nicole Gwishiri, Senior Program Manager across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, walked us through what it has become: 15+ staff across eight regions and 540 events since the first pilots in 2015-16.
The heart of it is the learning circle, held on farms, often women-owned ones. Instead of an expert lecturing at the front, everyone brings lived experience and everyone is treated as an expert. Stephanie described the pace as “moving at the speed of trust.” It has also grown beyond circles into mentorship pairings, financial wellness training, one-on-one help with land and loans, and a first leadership cohort that wrapped up this year.
Emily, a participant for five years, said a circle led her to a chicken processor and honest company in the struggle. Her Natural Resources Conservation Service connection led to a five-year Conservation Stewardship Program contract. Molly, a farmer in Arizona, had worked the same farm for six years and doubted she could ever buy it. She left the cohort saying her biggest goal was “far more attainable” than she’d thought. As Nicole put it, AFT didn’t give her that goal. It gave her the community and the information to pursue it.
Why It Matters
Roughly 300 million acres are expected to change hands over the next 20 years, and much of it will pass into women’s hands. Women have long done the work of farming without the title: the farm wife, the bookkeeper, the marketer. Stephanie’s point was that land stays in production and well stewarded when the people who will inherit it step into decision-making. Her reminder that it’s okay to identify as a farm wife or a landowner, because all of it is agriculture, stayed with me.
It connects to what I heard from Brooks Lamb about land transfer. Succession planning is often a conversation about who gets asked, and this is the program making sure women are in the room for it.
Support This Work
Women for the Land builds peer networks, mentorship, and leadership pathways for women farmers and landowners across the country.
→ Learn more about Women for the Land
→ Our earlier post: Three Californias
Maira Kalman’s work emphasizes the complexity of women’s lives and roles, revealed in the things they hold.
→ Read Women Holding Things, a moving art book about exploring the profound in everyday life
