WFAN Advisory Board
2010
The WFAN Advisory Board is made up of volunteer directors who serve up to two consecutive three-year terms to guide the organization in strategic planning, fundraising, programming and outreach.
Our advisory board currently includes the following women:
About ten years ago I decided to act on my convictions to make the world a better place and changed my career from the field of fundraising into farming. My vision is to encourage the resurgence of local foods systems in this country by supporting and connecting small, specialty food/fiber farmers to help restore the health of people and the environment. My hope is for a restoration of small food farms that feed people locally and seasonally, plus the recovery of the values that family farms and other small businesses have traditionally brought to our communities.
As a social entrepreneur, I now use the best of what I have learned as I work with small, specialty and niche food farmers to help them meet their farm business goals. In 2000, I created the Grow Your Small Market Farm™ Business Planning Program which today has worked with over 400 small farm businesses. In addition, I am currently working on developing a web-based Grow Your Small Market Farm™ Network to assist farmers across the U.S. in building their small farm businesses and their communities.
I am married to Gary Huber; we live on a 24-acre farm near Maxwell, IA, where we raise chemical-free potatoes and hay. We have three sons.
I grew up on the east coast and moved to Iowa in 1993 to work at Scattergood Friends School near Mt. Vernon. I’m currently the Scattergood Farm’s Livestock Manager, which means that I work with highschool students to look after our cattle and sheep, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, as well as helping in the garden and
orchards. I love to work outdoors with young people, engaging their sense of wonder, their knowledge of the ecosystems around them, their practical skills, and their ingenuity. I also work indoors: in the classroom as an art teacher and liaison between the farm and science teachers; and in the kitchen as a cook.
I might never have pursued that undergraduate degree in agronomy that led me to several years of work in soil and water conservation then onto graduate work in theological ethics (with an emphasis in environmental ethics). And I might not have considered contributing to a better world through work with nonprofits – Trees Forever, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Iowa Network for Community Agriculture, Women Food and Agriculture Network. And I might not have had a son who at 20 is giving serious attention to just what constitutes a sustainable society and how he figures into that. But I did move with my husband to that small farm in southern Madison County; so, I've had it all –including now the very real privilege of working with others to link and empower women in sustainable agriculture.
Steph Larsen is currently the Rural Policy Organizer for the Center for Rural Affairs in northeast Nebraska and works on issues related to health care reform in rural areas. Previously she spent three years in Washington, D.C., working on food security and nutrition issues with Community Food Security Coalition. She holds an MS in geography from her home state of Wisconsin. Steph grows as much of her own food as she can, and recently purchased a farm with her partner.
Hannah enjoys bike-commuting, pot-lucking, composting, and dancing.
I grew up in Carrington, North Dakota, where my parents still farm. It’s a small to medium size farm (for North Dakota) – about 1,500 acres of spring wheat, durum wheat, sunflowers, soybeans and smaller specialty crops. We never had any animals, so I don’t know how to milk a cow or anything like that. I did have the enthralling fun of pulling weeds from 10 acres of trees for several summers after my dad planted a shelterbelt. My siblings and I always had an inordinately large garden with sweet corn, potatoes, tomatoes, peas, squash, zucchini, etc. that we had to plant, water, weed, harvest and then sell to the neighbors. A little known fact: August is the only month of the year that North Dakotans lock their cars – otherwise you come back from shopping and find your back seat filled with zucchini.
I am an attorney with a background in policy and public interest work. Most recently, I worked as a staff attorney for Plains Justice, a non-profit environmental law center that provides legal services on environmental issues to non-profits and community groups in the upper Plains (Iowa, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Montana).
What I like best about WFAN is its dual focus on women and sustainable local food systems. I think the agricultural economy in the United States needs to undergo a complete transformation for the sake of farmers, rural communities, our food supply and our environment. Women, who own a lot of the land and provide a lot of the labor in the agricultural system, have tended to be marginalized in farm policy discussions. Women’s role as relative outsiders in this process actually creates an excellent receptivity to the non-traditional approach to agriculture that is so vital right now.
The connection between food and agriculture seems pretty obvious but in a world where most of the crops being grown go to making gasoline additives or plastics, food and agriculture can be pretty farm removed. It is my belief that those who grow and raise food have a valuable and necessary contribution to society. Those people that grow fruits and vegetables and those who raise free range beef, chicken, and pork contribute an edible product into the food chain, with little to no processing. This type of agriculture produces immediately edible products that are, more healthy nutritionally and socially. On the other hand, industrial agriculture creates food products as well but not immediately useful ones. Field corn can be made into high fructose corn syrup, and soybeans can be made into cooking oils, but they have many other layers of industry to pass through before they come out as a Twinkie. I would much rather have sweet corn over a Twinkie any day.
The connection between women and food seems evident as well. Traditionally, women are the main food buyers and preparers. Women are the primary decision makers when it comes to purchasing food. We have important incite into why people buy, what people buy, and where people buy. This puts us in a position to make progressive change in the food system. If women choose to buy local, trends will reflect it.
The connection between women and agriculture may not be as evident, but it is there none the less. Women are very much involved in agriculture. If they are not the sole proprietor in a farming operation they are generally part of a farming partnership. Even conventional farming, most likely includes a wife, a mother, or a sister in some way or another; and the number of women who own and work their own land is growing every year. Women play an equally important role in the agricultural system and deserve to be equally involved in the language. What pops in your head when you think ‘farmer’? I bet it’s an old man in greasy bib overalls, standing in his field of corn, and that’s not always the case. That’s the perspective I would like to change. Women are farmers, not farmwives. It’s important that women and men alike know that and understand what it means.
Women, Food, and Agriculture seems like an obvious cluster of issues to me and that’s why I am involved in this network. There are some key changes that need to be made in agriculture and food systems and women have a unique role in that change. We are our own experts whether we know it or not and being in network together helps us share and solicit that knowledge. I am here to teach and mostly to learn. Being a board member for this organization will help me grow and in turn I can help other women to grow in their ideas and principles. I’m so happy and excited to be a part of this group with so many dedicated, progressive, and interesting people.
My history with local foods is very intimate and an essential part of myself. I grew up on a small farm with the goats, chicken, cows, pigs, ducks, geese, gardens, fields and the rhythm that life brings. I have never outgrown it and it has been a lifelong dream to bring that experience into the present for the people I love and in the future for the people I will love.
My professional work is devoted to protecting and hopefully bettering the health of the people of this state. My work is specifically focused on tobacco use prevention and control. This field however, is successful because of the understanding that our communities are the key to transforming people's lives and that professionals may be an important factor in making change happen, but they are not the most vital factor. That most vital part of causing change is through recognizing and working with the people around us and letting their lives and stories drive that change. My hope in joining the WFAN Board is to support the organization’s efforts in any way I am able with the limited skills I have.
Betty is professor of sociology at Iowa State University, where she is part of the faculty of the Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture. She was one of the original members of WFAN, and lives near Ames, IA.
I was born and raised in Iowa. My maternal grandparents were farmers and I spent a lot of time on their farm. My paternal grandparents were also farmers but they sold the farm and moved to town. They had a BIG garden in town and planted lots of veggies and canned them. I spent a lot of time outdoors as a child. We went camping, fishing, mushroom hunting, and I just did a lot of exploring in the woods!
I graduated from Boone Jr./Sr. High School and went to Central College majoring in International Studies and German. While at Central I studied overseas at the Goethe Institut in Germany and the University of Vienna in Austria and did a lot of traveling and met a lot of people from different cultures. I remember visiting an Organic Farm while over there. I remember all the recycling bins, compost bins, and having to bring my own bag to the grocery store. They were so far ahead of us because this was in 1990!! Maybe it's because they don't have as much land as we do....not as much space to grow and not as much space to dump garbage either.
I got married to Scott and stayed in Boone. I worked in a bank until my second child was born in 1999 and then I stayed home with the kids. I got a job with a CPA and I just work there during tax season and have become an Enrolled Agent. This works out well because my "other" job is helping my husband with our produce business Wilber's Northside Market. We live on an acreage close to town and have been selling produce part-time since 2002. My husband quit his "real" job last spring to farm full-time. I love doing what we do and get great satisfaction from providing my community with fresh, local, great-tasting produce.
WFAN/PO Box 611/Ames, IA 50010/515.460.2477
