Women in Food and Farming

Monday 8th March 2021 is International Women's Day and I am delighted to be a panellist and speaker at the Feedback Global 'Cultivating Conversations' event. I'm looking forward to sharing my perspectives on care farming and green care and how that may differ from traditional perspectives on food and farming. 

In the spirit of International Women's Day, I'd like to recognise a handful of my colleagues whose work has shaped my own research over the past year since I was awarded my Churchill Fellowship. 

Judy Brewer is described in her home country of Australia as a farmer, educator and activist. We met 'virtually' through our respective Churchill Fellowship and Australian Churchill Fellowship in early 2020. Judy is a speaker and writer on neuro diverse families and is creating a care farm within her working farm to support autistic adults with acute anxiety. 

I met Hannah Fenton in April 2020 through the Sustain and Rothschild Foundation Buckinghamshire Food Partnership Scoping Project. It's been a privilege to be involved in the Food Summit and the Partnership Working Group and to see the early ideas transformed into six key work streams and the incorporation of the food partnership as a charity. 

Liz Everard has a background in mental health nursing and was awarded a Hocking Fellowship in 2019. She is in the process of setting up an innovative therapeutic farm in Tasmania which will offer a new model of treatment and support for adults with complex mental health needs. Despite being unable to travel for her fellowship due to the pandemic, Liz is pushing ahead with her charity. 

Wendy Gray is the founder of Countryways based at Road Farm in Buckinghamshire. Wendy set up this community interest company five years ago with the aim of supporting teenagers and adults through care farming. Its been an education to be involved as a volunteer since 2019 and to see care farming at its grass roots level. 

And finally a figure from history, Florence Nightingale.  In many ways she was ahead of her time in her thinking about what could promote and sustain health. She understood how nutritious food, the outdoors, fresh air and sunlight could impact positively on a person's health. She also believed that spending time with a companion animal could help speed a person's recovery.