Many sets of helping hands, groups of supportive friends and well-timed opportunities, sit at the heart of Hannah Breckbill’s journey from Carleton College math degree graduate to queer organic farmer and beginning farmer advocate.
As Hannah worked to create and continues to grow Humble Hands, she said she experienced unique issues as an LGBTQI+ farmer. “The main challenge that I associate with being a queer farmer is the societal and even legal expectations associated with ‘family+’.”
“Our farm is different from what people expect from a family farm because we’re two women who are not in a romantic partnership who own and operate the business together,” she said, referring to her farming partnership with her cousin.
Rhonda LaBatte is a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, a federally recognized tribe on the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota. Growing up in a rural area, Rhonda’s family relied on a garden to provide healthy food. Continuing that tradition from her youth, gardening has become a staple of her adult life as well. Learn more about Rhonda’s experience planning for and establishing the structure, and her first season growing in it in this USDA-NRCS Fridays on the Farm post.
This 2020 journal article examines childcare arrangements and an under-recognized challenge through which farm household dynamics directly influence agricultural production. The article draws on interviews and focus group data to identify and analyze social, economic and cognitive pathways through which childcare affects farm operations.
Citation:
Rissing, A., Inwood, S.M. and E. Stengel. 2020. “Farming Parents Are Working Parents: Tracing the Impact of Childcare on Agriculture and Food System Development.” Agriculture and Human Values. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10162-1
