The Future of Farming is Female

Words by Sara Maginn Pacella

When many people think of farmers, they envision the classic image of “American Gothic,” an elderly while couple situated on vast rural land. Today, many involved in Canadian agriculture are blazing new trails, including rising urban farming and smaller-scale “market” farms that grow a diverse range of crops set for market. These new paths better represent the diversity in farming and the Canadian population as a whole and help make farm-to-table food accessible to those who need it the most. Today Future Female is fortunate to interview three remarkable women who are leading change in Canadian agriculture.

Ohemaa Boateng (OB) is a farmer, food justice advocate, and early childhood educator who manages four school gardens in Toronto with Green Thumbs Growing Kids. Ohemaa helps to transform school gardens into a teaching space for children and the community by providing a hands-on experience of agriculture, teaching food literacy, improving the local ecology, and growing fresh produce and Afro-Indigenous foods for schools. Ohemaa brings her enthusiasm and passion to many not-for-profit urban agriculture initiatives, including as a garden and food educator for environment-based school programs. Amy Cheng (AC) is the market garden manager at Black Creek Community Farm. Amy has also worked as field staff as part of a larger team, coordinated various food education and gardening programs for seniors and community gardens, and run her own market garden operation called Red Pocket Farm, which focused on organic Chinese vegetables. Jane Hayes (JH) is a permaculture designer, gardener, community developer, and educator. She founded Garden Jane in 2007 and co-founded Hoffmann Hayes in 2015. She has spent 25 years co-developing healthy food programs and accompanying site designs with municipalities, non-profits, and socially responsible businesses.

*The following interview excerpts have been edited for clarity and brevity.

What made you decide to get involved in farming/agriculture/gardening?

OB: For me, farming has been closely related to me embracing myself and my hair and rejecting standard European/North American beauty. I began asking myself why I was putting products in my hair filled with chemicals for straightening. I learned that a lot of the products I was using on my skin and hair were harmful. I remember my mom telling me that whatever you can eat is good for your skin, and I started exploring things like shea butter in my beauty routine. As a DIY enthusiast, I investigated the sourcing of local organic ingredients. This led me to making my own hair and skincare products, growing fresh produce, and raising chickens from my backyard for my family. This journey made me realize how food insecure my community was, and I needed to learn how to be more self-sufficient.

AC: In the summer of 2001, I had the chance to work in Costa Rica. There, I saw many foods typically imported to Canada growing in their natural environment. This made me realize my own ignorance about where my food came from, who grows it, and how it’s grown. I reflected on the disconnection to food and the lack of food education, especially in urban areas. JH: I was an urban kid who grew up in an apartment with no access to land. I longed to go into the gardens on my block, but never found

a way in. In university I studied how groups organize around food. I started community gardening as a student, and then studied them, building my career out of this evolution.

What are some common misconceptions about family farms, women in farming, and farming-related businesses in general?

OB: When people think of farming, they don’t think of a young Black woman. That idea of what farming is deters a lot of people who look like me from pursuing agriculture—they don’t imagine a space where they will be welcome. This is the North American context, but if you look at developing countries, women are many of the stakeholders and the face of farming. For whatever reason it doesn’t translate in North America.

When you want to get into agriculture, it’s difficult. The cost of farmland is really expensive, being able to finance it or have the capital to start—and this is all before being able to put a seed in the ground—and ensuring that you are able to pay staff fair wages. This makes it challenging to start anything like that in Canada. AC: There is a lot of romanticizing of farms and farming. It is certainly idyllic and lives up to what people imagine farming to be like, in some ways; it’s a privilege to work outside, be connected to nature, and it is gratifying and meaningful work for those who pursue it. Beyond internal conversations amongst growers, in the portrayal of farming to the public, there is a lot of romanticizing of the work and no shortage of pretty vegetable pictures. There is nothing wrong with this, but smallscale organic growers can use a lot more systemic support from different levels of government to strengthen the industry through things like policies that would make land more affordable and accessible for farmers, support education and training programs for ecological growers, provide start-up grants for new and young farmers, and address