Why We Need Female Farmers
There’s a saying: "If you teach a man to farm, his family will eat. If you teach a woman to farm, the whole community will eat.”
As Arizona shifts further into a space where water shortages, climate challenges, and social justice issues are changing how we farm and ranch, female innovative minds are needed more than ever. Rapid urbanization and economic development plans are paving over our farmland, and a woman’s way of acting communally and maternally is needed to rethink how we grow food, where we grow food, and why we grow food.
Female farmers are creating alternative narratives to the extractive way of producing food. They are recentering food production on nature-based, community-focused solutions with the purpose of providing nutrient-dense food to their communities while also stewarding the land and our natural resources.
Did you know? According to the 2019 Agricultural Resource Management Survey, more than half (51 percent) of all farming operations in the United States had at least one woman operator. Over 48% of Arizona farmers are women, making it the state with the highest portion of women farmers in the country.
From the Navajo Nation to South Phoenix, meet several of the state’s female farmers with their hands in the soil, redefining what agriculture in Arizona looks like.
Stories of Arizona Women Transforming our Food System
You can support Nika and the Heart & Soil garden by attending one of their events, register for a Baehive class, or by following them on social media.
Chanika Forte, Heart & Soil People’s Garden & Baehive
Chanika Forte is the garden director of Heart & Soil People’s Garden, a women-led urban farm on a neighborhood corner in South Phoenix that is growing over 14,000 pounds of nutritious fruits and vegetables for local families. Nika – as dubbed by her community and what she goes by – is the founder of Baehive, a sisterhood where she educates and empowers a new generation of female beekeepers. She has her hands deep in the soil, growing strong roots within her community, and leading the way for a new generation of female farmers, growers, and beekeepers.
Although Nika “stumbled” upon farming while attending an alternative medicine school to become a life coach, farming is deeply ingrained in her DNA. She is a seventh generation farmer, and her great, great, great grandmother was one of the first Black women to own her farm in Linden, Alabama in the 1920s.
During her education, Nika completed her internship hours at the St. Vincent De Paul's urban farm. Since then, seven years have passed, and her passion for growing and making healthy food accessible continues to be at the forefront of her work within the South Phoenix community.
Much of Nika’s work focuses on educating and inspiring other women to step into the food space and redefine society's idea of what farmers are and what they “should look like.” When asked why women should be a part of our local system, Nika shared, “Women around the planet have been the caretakers of the earth for centuries. While men hunted and gathered, women sowed the seeds and farmed the land. We not only know how to farm the land, we are also the first teachers in our children's lives and what we choose to pour into the next generation is so important.”
When it comes to women equality in farming, Nika added, “If we empower women and give them the tools needed to succeed, they can help lift families out of poverty and end food insecurity.”
Cherilyn Yazzie, Coffee Pot Farms
Coffee Pot Farms is a 36-acre farm located in Dilkon, Arizona run by a husband-wife team that is committed to growing fresh vegetables for Navajo families. Farmer Cherilyn Yazzie takes the healing power of food to a deeper level with the farm’s mission: “Food is the first medicine, as it comes from Mother Earth; and food sovereignty is the critical first step to creating healthy communities and healthy families.”
Farming is part of Cherilyn's ancestry. Her paternal grandfather and grandmother were farmers and sheep herders. However, Cherilyn didn't start out as a farmer. She worked as a social worker before jumping into farming and has directed her passion for public health and nutrition to empower her community. While working on nutrition prevention programs in her day job, she started questioning the food system within Indigenous communities and wondered how her community could actually access healthy, fresh food.
When Cherilyn first started the farm, growing food seemed to be a daunting task, as she didn’t know the first thing about farming or if it would even be possible for them to grow enough food to feed her community. But, she didn't let her fears or the unknown stop her. Arizona's terrain offers unique challenges as an arid-hot landscape.Through lots of experimenting with the land and advice from farmers like Kim Costion-Howell who has years of knowledge in dryland farming, Cherilyn and her husband built the original infrastructure of Coffee Pot Farms. Coffee Pot Farms has now grown into a 36-acre successful farming operation.
Cherilyn’s farm feeds families across the Navajo Nation and offers nutrient-dense, freshly grown produce like greens, tomatoes, squash, peppers, and more. It is their way of helping to build a stronger and more resilient food system.
When it comes to women in farming, Cherilyn said, “We need to be at the table. We will always be the ones cooking and preparing food. We know the nutritional needs that go into our families, our farms, into the soil, and into the end product. Women need to be at the table at the policy level to help change the systems.”
Cherilyn is not only making actionable strides everyday by feeding and nourishing her community, she was recently appointed a council delegate for the Navajo Nation Council and strives to make changes at a policy level.
By growing and providing high-quality produce, she hopes to nourish her Navajo community and encourage the use of food as a way to reconnect with their ancestors and descendants. When asked about the next generations of women farmers, Cherilyn offered this piece of advice: “Ask questions, question the system, and represent your community.”
Visit Emily at the Uptown Phoenix Farmers Market or follow her journey on social media.
Emily Heller, Bene Vivendo
Emily Heller of Bene Vivendo is a Phoenix-based farmer who specializes in growing vegetables, herbs, fruit, and flowers. It wasn’t until after she shifted into her third professional career that she became serious about growing full time. After becoming a Master Gardener, Emily found other beginning farmer programs and dove deeper into farming, completing multiple sequences in Maricopa and Pinal. With only a big backyard to grow in, she began taking produce and flowers that she grew to sell at Uptown Farmers Market. Even with a small space to grow in, Emily's success – which she attributes to her deep connection to Mother Nature – can be seen through her gorgeous bouquet of flowers, seasonal produce, and her loyal customer base who make the trek to her farmers market stand every week.
Encouraged by her community and loyal customer base, she began leasing small patches of land outside her backyard to expand her growing operations. During the challenges and struggles that most Arizona farmers deal with, Emily perseveres by reminding herself: “Head down and farm.”
To Emily, the act of growing food and flowers goes far beyond her love of it. “Feeding people is an experience like no other,” she said. “When the food and flowers you’ve grown become an experience of delicious nourishment, food memory, and joy, this is the superpower of farming. It feels like magic.”
Emily wants other women farmers to know that it is meaningful to participate in the local food and flower economy, even as a small-scale producer.
Drinking Gourd Farms
Drinking Gourd Farms is a network of Black and African American homesteaders, farmers, and gardeners who are transforming vacant lots, apartment balconies, backyards, and public spaces into food-growing spaces. Farmer Ibado Mahmud and other refugee women farmers are part of the Drinking Gourd Farms collective who are creating pathways of self-sufficiency for themselves and other families across Phoenix. Ibado said the motivation behind their operation is to create healthy food sources from the ground up and liberate their community from a food system that “doesn't have their best interests at heart.”
Support Drinking Gourd Farms by following them on social media or head over to their website to learn more about their mission.
Their motto: “To free us, the first thing we must do is feed us” guides the farming collective as they continue to grow fresh, nutrient-dense food that is distributed to women and families on a regular basis. “Eating a healthy balanced diet directly correlates with your quality of life and mental health,” said Ibado, adding that this is another reason they put so much heart into the work they do.
When starting Drinking Gourd Farms, the collective set out to provide a space for individuals to come and learn how to grow their own food and provide for their families. She noted, their farm is a place to “give opportunities to the community to help themselves.” Drinking Gourd Farms provides the knowledge and space for women to learn farming skills and also provides fresh, seasonal produce grown by the community, for the community.
The collective does not sell any produce they grow on their garden sites; instead, they distribute it to the people who need it. Ibado added, “We believe that healthy food is a human right, so that is exactly what we are providing.”
For women who want to start farming or growing their own food, Ibado advised, “It’s okay to fail. We learn by trial and error, so do not give up. Be consistent, and you will become fruitful. Be patient with yourself. You can grow healthy food easily and in your backyard. It is so empowering to know that your hands grew something that is going to feed you.”
Drinking Gourd Farm hopes to bring more like-minded people into their community and to celebrate the incredible healing power of locally grown food.
Follow the Food Forest Cooperative on social media to learn more.
Maria Parro Cano, Food Forest Cooperative
Maria Parra Cano is a healer, farmer, community supporter, entrepreneur, chef, mother, wife, founder, and more. She is deeply rooted in her community, and her work focuses on healing Indigenous communities through various different avenues, one being through the The Food Forest Cooperative.
The Food Forest Cooperative is on a mission to provide fresh, regionally, and culturally appropriate foods through sustainable, regenerative farming practices that support the surrounding ecological life and Phoenix community.
This type of work takes dedication and passion, and the women behind the Food Forest Cooperative are full of both. Maria shared her experience of being a woman farmer, as well as working alongside other powerful women in this space. “Four of the five founding members/co-owners are female and active in the nurturing of the daily operations. Our fifth member, Brian Cano, is also a powerhouse and the essential muscle to the team. Alexis Ruby Trevizo, Ali LoPiccolo, Chanel Evans, and I have been growing together since March 2021. We have grown together as farmers, colleagues, sisters, and business owners. Each of us holds our own expertise and passion for the work we do.”
The journey of getting the Food Forest Cooperative up and running wasn't easy. The idea of creating a sustainable cooperative was formed in 2017, but the first seeds weren’t sowed until February of 2022. In between the initial dream and what the Cooperative is now, countless hours of research, planning, and finding funding were happening behind the scenes. The challenges never stopped for the Food Forest Cooperative team. “We’ve had some challenges in navigating relationships in this work, but we are true to our mission and goals,” she said, “We are active strategists and communicators – we figure out ways to get things done!”
Because they pushed through the challenges, the women of the Food Forest Cooperative are now able to honor the Indigenous plants, medicine, and foods that are culturally relevant and adapted to the Arizona climate. Maria added, “I look forward to many more years of growing as individuals, colleagues, and at the food forest.”
Trinity Montague, Montapata Farms
Montapata Farms is a small family run organic farm located in Cornville that is focused on organic produce, microgreens, herbal tinctures, and more. Trinity and her family may be new to farming, but their passion for growing food has already led them to be successful in many ways.
Their farm was purchased a few years ago but not with the intention to grow food. Originally, they purchased land with the idea of it being their retirement home. But, when Covid hit in 2020, they reevaluated their plans and moved from Phoenix to Cornville. With grocery stores running low on fresh food and not being the most reliable source for food long term, Trinity and her family began to think, “We need to figure out a way to grow food ourselves.”
Follow Montapata Farms to stay in the know on what they’re growing and how their farm continues to evolve.
Having just moved to Cornville, Trinity and her partner, Dominique, weren’t sure what to expect. “Being a gay couple with lots of mixed races in our small family and moving to a conservative small town was a little worrying,” she said. “We had been up to Cornville many times for camping, wine tasting, and vacationing so we were familiar, but living there is a whole different beast. Or, so we thought. But, immediately we were greeted with open arms.”
One of the best ways to learn about food as a new farmer is experimenting with the land and leaning on farmers who have knowledge and lived experiences– so that's exactly what they did. “Our immediate neighbors, a 70-year old organic farmer and his Veteran Marine son, moseyed over to introduce themselves,” Trinity said. “After introductions, we immediately planned a potluck BBQ and literally have been best friends ever since. “Dad,” as I now call him, came over with a bag of his homemade, nutrient-dense compost, a few packs of seeds that seemed to be from the 1970s, and a little bucket of lettuce. He said: “Lets just throw them in the ground and see what we get.”
And just like that, their first vegetable was grown. “It was the most amazing feeling all of us had ever felt,” she shared. “Literal tears of joy over a carrot!” That’s when they realized that this was the life they wanted. “In a time where families were turning on each other and people were falling apart– people full of anger, racism, and rage – we found peace with this small piece of dirt.”
Like most women in the farming space, Trinity has dealt with hurdles and obstacles but she said, “These NOs have created something different. A stronger passion, a bigger need, and a louder calling to be the best. Women are strong and resilient because we’ve had to be, but also we bring a certain compassion and caring component to life. We are the creators of life. It only makes sense that we become the farmers, the growers, and the makers.”