Women, Land and Legacy

USDA State Outreach Council

Small group dialogue The Women, Land, and Legacy project is a statewide outreach effort on behalf of the USDA State Outreach Council (SOC). The SOC includes USDA agencies, state and local agencies/organizations, nonprofit organizations, and faith-based organizations. The goal of the SOC is to gather information about program and outreach needs of under served groups; ways to address these needs; barriers to participation in USDA programs; and effective dissemination of information to these groups. Outreach to women involved with agriculture in Iowa has been identified as a need, thus the Women, Land, and Legacy project.

How Women, Land, and Legacy Works

Local teams assist a statewide team in development, promotion and implementation of local conversations. The local team includes Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Farm Service Agency (FSA), Extension Service, local women, and other local partners.

Group discussion in Mitchellville, IA Local, structured conversations in the form of small group dialogues are taking place with women in 2004/05 in the following counties:

Lyon
Cass
Howard
Wapello
Marshall

The local conversations will produce the foundation for educational strategies for women involved in agriculture. Through the local conversations, women will identify:

Their connections to the land
Issues for Iowa's agricultural women
Information and education needs
Assistance needs
Most effective education strategies to use for the region

In 2005 and beyond, educational strategies for agricultural women will take place, utilizing the locally led process (local teams and local women).

The Future

Local farm women Through the local, grassroots efforts of Women, Land, and Legacy, local networks of women will be established. These networks will provide ongoing support and resources for women connected to the land and will help build capacity within the ever growing community of agricultural women in Iowa.