I was highly impressed by the work of Emily Oakley. She made it her mission to bring healthy eating and sustainable living for the town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She became well practiced in healthy eating habits and farming through education at the University of California Davis along with her learned experiences in Providence, Nebraska. She and her husband continually experimented with fruits and vegetables seeing which would grow in their soil along with observing growing methods. While maintaining these research methods, they built their own business model. Through marketing of word-of-mouth they inspired their town about the importance of healthy eating. Their mission became others’. It reminds that one person can make such a huge impact in a community! She truly is a woman of constancy. Not only did they pursue their own benefits in this field, but also they pursued other benefits for their community. They decided to only hire laborers if they could afford to pay them a living wage and she purchased and accepted food stamps for low-income folks to use so they can afford her produce. These two entrepreneurs are smart, caring, and invested in their work. She even admits to the gender issue in her community as she had to take on the seemingly obvious role women play in a business; she provided the jovial saleswomen at the market to increase profit whereas her husband had a straight forward approach to marketing. I didn’t like her explanation of men being better mechanics—I don’t fully agree with that. Nonetheless, her story is truly compelling. She reminds me how entrepreneurs must whole-heartedly expose themselves in order to achieve maximum success.
Wednesday, April 5, 2017 1:49 pm
Farmer Jane included a wide variety of very impressive women, but one that stood out to me was Glenda Humiston. Humiston stood out to me not only for her impressive career path, California’s State Director of USDA’s Rural Development Programs and Former Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment as the Department of Agriculture but by the way Humiston is able to lead and compromise under her employees and constituents. Humiston was able to get local, federal, public and private sectors, as well as interest groups to buy into the legislation. She often focuses on preserving farmland, managing water distribution, and managing natural resources. The most impressive thing that Humiston does is her ability to lead and create compromise, often among groups with clashing interests. Her interest in sustainability, water quality preservation, and being able to create legislation through the people and for the people is extremely admirable. Besides focusing on sustainability and longevity of our natural resources (water included), Humiston sought to have transparency and negotiations into the complex, and often convoluted legislative process. She did this all under the Californian and Federal government working eighty plus hours a week and meeting constantly with politicians and different interest groups.
Humiston’s story particularly resonates with me, since I am from California, we often here a lot concerning water and farmland bills that get made into law. Since much of California is dedicated farmland, there is often intense debate over water usage during the drought, a debate on land ownership and usage, and the use of farmland. Humiston also grew up on a ranch, so she understands the hardships and obstacles many farmers have to overcome.
Wednesday, April 5, 2017 1:45 pm
When reading Farmer Jane, I was intrigued by Severine Von Tscharner Fleming’s life’s work. I was initially compelled because of her reputation of always riding around a foldable bike, but later became fascinated by her passion to create the rhetoric of sustainable agriculture and use it to drive governmental legislation to support farming, Her documentary, The Greenhorns about young farmers connects well with what we are doing in this class because she is giving farmers, people who are usually marginalized and dismissed, a voice. Severine is using film to raise awareness about farming and provide insight into the passions of young people in hopes to encourage more young viewers to support and participate in farming. I thought this was an effective strategy to keep sustainable farming alive because many young people do not get exposed to farming and might not know what it’s all about or why it’s important. Getting today’s youth involved in farming is crucial for the future of our society, and Severine is shedding light to and amplifying the young farmer’s movement that is happening.
I also found Severine’s insight on the work of women in agriculture interesting. She emphasizes the importance of women’s work on farming because of their collaboration skills and non-competitive and non-chauvinistic tendencies. According to Severine, “women take on responsibility and non-glamorous things in ways that boys do not.” Severine uses her experience with her college campus farm as a testament to this and says that she would do the nitty-gritty yet necessary details while the males would take on infrastructure building. Men are typically seen as the ones who are willing to “get their hands dirty,” but in Severine’s experience with farming, it’s actually the women. I am not exactly sure why this would be, but it gives insight into the sustainable farming industry’s reliance on resilient, hard-working women, who may be extremely impactful, but only from behind the scenes.
Wednesday, April 5, 2017 5:42 am
Farmer Jane featured many impressive woman, but I was particularly impressed by Lois Ellen Frank and the way she created a new field of study based on her interests and experiences. She discovered a way to integrate her passion for food, photography and her appreciation for Native foods. I appreciated how much she supports local foods, with a food preference for local and seasonable foods that come from as close to her home as possible. However, I was most impressed by her leadership skills in starting the Red Mesa Cuisine to educate others about Native foods. I have never considered food to be a means of education, but it is such a powerful way to convey a meaning and history. For example, at a Red Mesa Cuisine event, Lois and other chefs served bison meat stew with bison from a member of the Intertribal Bison cooperative and also New Mexico Pueblo blue corn posole. Lois is bringing attention to Native foods and thereby Native people in America, which both do not often receive much attention. By demonstrating their quality and flavor, Lois can also demonstrate their cultural importance and make people care about them.
Furthermore, I was impressed with the way Lois trains her staff to be of “pure mind, body, spirit and essence so that we conscientiously feed people with a concern- with love like your grandmother would, and with the essence of sustainability.” I loved the way she talked about treating food with genuine concern and care for sustaining one another, because our treatment of food has now become completely removed from its source. We rarely think of the cow who supplied the meat for our hamburger and many of us turn a blind eye to the disgusting and inhumane practices of many large farms and food corporations. Lois Ellen Frank takes a different approach towards food and I appreciate her stance and her means of educating others through food.
Wednesday, April 5, 2017 2:46 am
I was really intrigued by the story of Erika Allen, who started Growing Power Chicago. I was drawn to the work of Allen because I am from Chicago and actively see the poverty and food insecurity in many of the neighborhoods. I love how Allen is using food to transform the way that people are living in the city. I have first hand seen the impact that Allen has had in Cabrini Green, the neighborhood has completely transformed in the last 5-10 years. One thing I was surprised by was the challenges that Allen faced when opening the Chicago Growing Power office. In the sector of non-profit and the type of work that Allen was doing, giving back to the community through creating jobs and growing food I would not think that her business would be met with skepticism because of the good she is doing for the community. However, her story is very common for women of color entrepreneurs as they have to work with city officials and other organization with a predominantly white culture. But, I admire how Allen turned the challenges she met into action by creating the Growing Food and Justice Initiative.
I also really love the focus Allen has put on educating the youth of Chicago, teaching them where food comes from and how to grow it. Her work not only ensures that children are changing their eating habits, but it also teaches them different life skills. Chicago is facing so many different issues today, including racism, violence, and education, but I love how Allen is combatting these issues through food: “Food is the next frontier in social justice, and working in food is a great way to help transform how people are living in Chicago.”
Tuesday, April 4, 2017 10:50 pm
The text, Farmer Jane, tells us the story about amazing women who are changing different industries like farming, through their business. In addition, it focuses on the way women are changing businesses for the future by making long-term relationships. In the text, it discusses women that are making a difference in their community. The story I liked most was about Jesse Ziff Cool. Her mission is on sustainable, local and organic food. She is also an author and a chef. Her mantra of “the customer comes last” made me read it again since, in the business school, we are often taught that the customer comes first. I loved hearing about her because it made me want to do research online and check out her “cool” restaurant, Flea Street Cafe. They only serve fresh, in-season, organic and local ingredients. The website itself looks really well done and if I visit Menlo Park, I will be sure to visit one of her cafes.
Another aspect I liked about her story is that Jesse’s family had made everything from scratch. We need more of that. Now, everything is pre-made, or pre-packaged and we are losing the good old homemade recipes that made us love our grandmother so much. Cool now has three restaurants and seven cookbooks. I hope she continues to achieve the success she has had so far and hopefully I can meet her at some point.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017 9:44 am
I found interest in Erika Allen’s farm. She is the founder of Growing Power Chicago (GPC) and she was included in the chapter about urban farming. The first part of her story that I found interesting was the educational choice she made in college despite her large involvement in her father’s farm. She received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and she also received a master’s in art therapy. I think that having a parent that submerges you into a certain occupational field for a long time can make it subconsciously difficult to do something different than that in the future. So I look at her decision to study art over farming as a bold move.
Another thing I found interesting was the mission she had when she eventually changed her mind about farming and opened the offices of (GPC). She said it was to grow food, and to provide jobs and youth training programs. When I think of farmers I assume they all have the same goal of making food for themselves and everyone else in the world. But to see how she had bigger intentions than just that, showed me how much farmers can accomplish and fight for in society with the knowledge that they have.
Finally, the book includes a quote from Allen, about seven years into the farm’s operation, that I thought showcased Allen’s strength: “At this point everyone knows who we are. I don’t have to justify everything that we do.” Erika Allen is an African-American female, and the book mentions the sexism and institutionalized racism she endured from white city council members and white heads of other non-profits doing similar things, since starting the farm. But the quote shows how important a firm, resilient establishment is for the continuance of an enterprise.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017 3:09 am
As noted in the revised syllabus, the assignment for April 4 is to read the National Geographic article with Amy Toensing’s photographs: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/contributors/t/photographer-amy-toensing/
You may also be interested in this Feb.1 NYTimes article: https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/highlighting-women-in-photojournalism/ and check out the new website: https://www.womenphotograph.com
By noon April 5, post your reader response to Farmer Jane: Write 250-300 words about someone featured in Farmer Jane whose life’s work you find particularly compelling — and why.
Thursday, March 30, 2017 6:51 pm
The Confidence Gap Reader’s Response
I found the overall article to be fascinating, but there were a few parts that struck a chord. One of my biggest weaknesses is not speaking up as often as I should in fear that what I say will not sound perfect the first time I say it. There was a story in the article about how a female associate at a law firm was extremely well practiced, but did not speak up during client meetings. The senior partner had to include confidence as a part of a formal performance-review process, which hurt her. I am afraid of this for me. How do I practice this? Where do I go from here? Apparently there are groups called Toast Masters that help with Public Speaking—I would love to invest time in this!
I also liked the part that said that people who are confident have expansive body language, a lower vocal tone, and a tendency to speak early and often in a calm, relaxed manner. “They do a lot of things that make them look very confident in the eyes of others”. “Whether they are good or not is kind of irrelevant”. “The most confident people were just considered the most beloved in the group” … “Their overconfidence did not come across as narcissistic”. This struck a chord for me. I am in a sorority where the girls change their profile pictures on facebook every week and expect to have 100-300 likes per photograph. Is it strange to assume that this may fall under the notion of confident people try to do things to make them look very confident in the eyes of others—and especially in the eyes of others…Facebook is a direct portal for the eyes of their sample market, Wake Forest University…and the target market being…employers, family members, loved ones, etc.
Also, I loved that this article touched on perfectionism. I am working on this right now—I am fighting the need to be perfect in a world of women who need to be beautiful, whatever that may look like. I grew up in a society where women in the south (I grew up in South Carolina) provided for their man emotionally and cared for the children 24/7 unlike the man. As I wish to be a working mother, I cannot afford to look and act like a ‘step ford wife’ like the mothers I was surrounded by during every dinner party, etc. I had to stop playing sports in high school and I found the arts to be a place where I could be honest, weird, truthful, expressive…it has been a wonderful outlet to express my inner self.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017 3:29 pm
There were a few things in this article that stuck out at me that I thought would be interesting to talk about. One of those things, was the part of the article that said how the authors’ “experience of interviewing successful women suggests that the power centers of this nation are zones of female self-doubt” when women are included. We’ve seen other examples of this sentence written and said in class and in other articles, but I think the use of the phrase ‘power centers of this nation’ puts a new spin on the meaning of this sentence by broadening the scope of it. I think that in past articles that we have read, they’ve only focused on women specifically leading in a certain field or subject (i.e. STEM, Physics, Finances). But ‘power centers of this nation’ is not only referring to the women leading within the corporate world, the agricultural world, or the technological world, but those in leadership positions that guide the functions of the country. And when you put things in that perspective, it makes the whole issue of low female confidence, more real and more significant. These are leaders who are making direct and indirect impacts on our lives as well and not only on those who are within their occupational circles.
Another thing that I found interesting in this article, was the apparent binary of competency and self-assurance. The article at one point talked about how the “alpha-male journalists’ were assumed to know more than women journalists because they were “louder and more certain”. I understand the argument the article is trying to make here: Just because men tend to speak up more than women doesn’t mean that they know more than women, and just because women tend to speak up less, doesn’t mean they don’t know more than men. But then, the article asked the questions: “But were they really more competent? Or just more self-assured?” and in my opinion, these questions encourage the idea that men are dumber than they seem and women are smarter than they seem and this blanket statement bothered me (specifically pertaining to the men side of the argument). Yeah some guys are know-it-alls, but there are some people, men and women who just know their stuff and are, or has grown, confident with it. So why down-play the existence of these kinds of people?
The final thing that I wanted to touch on from this article, was the part of it that said “striving to be perfect actually keeps us from getting much of anything done”. Me being an overplanner, I can totally relate to the truth of this statement. Everyday, I plan out everything that I do: what homework to do, when to eat, where to eat, when to do my hair, when to sleep, where to change places in doing my homework. I mean literally down to every detail. And I’ve found that doing all of that just to try to make myself more efficient in getting stuff done, doesn’t actually work. In fact, I usually spend more time planning my day out than I do living it out and when I reflect on that it’s sad but true. Planning is my coping mechanism for stress. As long as I have a plan to get things done, in my mind, everything will get done. But I’m now teaching myself new ways to plan that aren’t excessive so that I can be more effective and have more relaxing moments throughout the day. And the quote above serves as motivation for that.
Monday, March 27, 2017 3:56 pm
