News

As a second-year master's degree student in rural sociology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, Zoe Chambliss seeks ways to expand her knowledge in the role of women in agriculture and rural development.

A team of researchers has found that farm women experience a “triple burden”: simultaneously juggling different roles on- and off-the farm, often handling the invisible labor of caring for their households, children and farms. Their new study, recently published in the Journal of Agromedicine, revealed a significant portion of stressors these women face are mostly invisible, such as the mental load of childcare, researching farm needs, working off the farm, planning meals, organizing medical appointments and more — in short, all of the things needed to make a household and farm run.

New study shows how childcare difficulties have wide, rippling effects on farm enterprises. In the study, over three quarters of farm families with children under 18 reported that they had experienced childcare challenges, largely due to cost and availability, which means tha­t they often must cobble together multiple paid and unpaid childcare options. Credit: pixdeluxe/Getty Images / Penn State. Creative Commons

Between Subsistence and Sustainability on Isla Fuerte, Colombia

Stephanie Buechler (Ag Sciences Global), Kathy Kelley (Plant Sciences), and Michaela Centinari (Plant Sciences), together with research assistants Zoelie Rivera and Sarah Peachey, developed a policy brief based on the findings of their interdisciplinary, applied project, 'Women Grape and Wine Producers in Pennsylvania, USA and Mendoza, Argentina: Meeting Sustainability Challenges through Networks.'

The college’s Ag Sciences Global unit received a Gilman International Scholarship Grant from the U.S. Department of State to present the Gilman Global Food Security Virtual Seminar, which will be held beginning at 1 p.m. on Feb. 9 and 23, March 29 and April 26.

Penn State and University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers found that counties with more women farmers also have longer life expectancies and lower poverty rates.

Penn State's GEARE Initiative partner, CSIR-SARI, supports two farming communities in northern Ghana with time saving technologies for peanut production as part of the USAID Feed the Future Peanut Innovation Lab (at UGA)'s funded project, "Time Poverty Amongst Smallholder Farmers in Northern Ghana."

The Water-Energy-Food Nexus Colombia seed grant program has announced the selection of three research projects led by faculty from Penn State and Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano (UTADEO), in Bogotá, Colombia, to support research and development work with three departments in Colombia. This multi-institutional, collaborative program is aimed at building long‐term partnerships among Penn State and Colombian partners and is supported with funds from Penn State Global Programs and the Office of International Programs in the College of Agricultural Sciences, and by grants to UTADEO from the Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Embassy of Bogotá, Colombia, and the Colombian Institute of Educational Credit and Technical Studies Abroad.

While women represent a significant portion of the global agricultural workforce, they face many roadblocks to success, including limited access to land, technological advancements, education and financing. They also often are excluded from household-level and policy decisions that determine their future. These barriers, and ways to overcome them, are explored in a new publication, “Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture,” co-edited by faculty in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

Global Programs has announced the 2020 recipients of annual awards that recognize the outstanding contributions of individuals and academic programs at Penn State who have helped to advance the University’s global engagement goals. Faculty and students from the College of Agricultural Sciences received six of the ten awards presented. Awards included the college's work in gender, youth development, innovation in international education, and the nexus of water, energy, and food.

GEARE faculty launch a blog examining gendered impacts, specifically in the area of food and agriculture, due to the Corona virus pandemic.

A $450,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut Research will aid researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences as they explore the potential to empower women farmers in northern Ghana through peanut production.

A new three-year project that will pilot and scale locally viable and gender-responsive circular-economy solutions was launched on 24 September in Nairobi, Kenya.

Faculty in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences are spearheading an initiative that will provide selected doctoral students with the opportunity for extensive study on gender and its relationship to agricultural production.

Studying for her dual-title doctoral degree in rural sociology and in international agriculture and development at Penn State, Paige Castellanos learned about the plight of families living in western Honduras, where many eke out a living in an economy marked by high poverty rates and subsistence agriculture.

Developing lasting solutions to the problems of poverty, hunger and social injustice is the cornerstone of a new partnership between Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences and Oxfam America, the U.S. affiliate of Oxfam, the global organization working to end the injustice of poverty in 90 countries around the world.

In a perfect world, everyone would have access to nutritious, affordable food. However, as Rick Bates knows, there is no such thing as utopia when it comes to food security, as millions of people around the world have limited food resources. One of those places is Cambodia in Southeast Asia, one of the world's poorest countries, where the rural poverty rate is 24 percent, and 40 percent of children younger than 5 are chronically malnourished, making them vulnerable to significant health problems.

Dr. Kathleen Sexsmith, assistant professor of Rural Sociology, receives the Roy C. Buck award which recognizes the best recently published article in the social sciences. Her article presents research on undocumented immigrant farmworkers and their ability to access healthcare. Dr. Sexsmith focuses her current research on gender and agriculture in both a domestic and international context.

The USAID funded Women in Agriculture Network (WAgN): Honduras project is currently working with an indigenous women's non-government organization in western Honduras to promote gender equity. Implemented by Zamorano University (Honduras) and a team of Penn State faculty, the gender-integrated Farmer Field School provides a blend of horticulture technical skills and gender focused awareness.

Dr. Carolyn Sachs, Professor Emeritus and instrumental leader of the Gender, Agriculture, Energy and Environment Initiative, discusses women's role in "preserving biodiversity through farmer control of seeds" in a recent publication for the United Nations. Dr. Sachs will also be speaking at the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women later this March.

Advocating for policies and programs that support local agriculture, Lyn Garling, co-owner of Over the Moon Farm and member of the Pennsylvania Women's Agriculture Network, participates in the Farmer Fly-In program, meeting with legislators in Washington D.C. to advocate for programs including farmers markets and policies that support local food security.

From December 5-8, 2017, faculty from Penn State's Gender in Agriculture, Energy and Environment Initiative participated in the CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research at their first annual scientific conference and capacity development workshop in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

On June 19-20, 2017, the Office of International Programs hosted the Gender+ Atelier, as the second iteration of the Gender, Agriculture, Energy, and Environment Symposium.