Since March is Women’s History Month, I thought it would be important to dedicate a blog to women in the agriculture industry. It’s important to learn about the women in the industry who have helped paved the way for others.
In this blog we are going to discuss some of the influential women in agriculture and their contributions to the industry. Whether past or present these women have truly made an impact on agriculture.
Women in Agriculture
First, let’s talk generally about women in agriculture. Personally, I think it’s easy to overlook women in the industry because when people think of the stereotypical farmer, they think of a man. But did you know that in the U.S., over 30 percent of farmers are women? I’m almost positive that number will continue to increase as years go by. Women are able to be leaders and empower those in the agriculture industry. As we learned in my last blog (go check it out if you haven’t yet! -https://emonismith13.wixsite.com/thefarmersdaughter/post/what-is-agriculture) there are many different areas of the agriculture industry. From the farm to the classroom there are so many amazing women involved in agriculture.
Dr. Temple Grandin (1947-Present)
One of the first women in agriculture I remember learning about was Dr. Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin is an advocate for autism as well as animal rights. Having autism allowed Temple to be able to see life from a different perspective which helped her to create different animal welfare practices.
Her career is focused on designing humane livestock facilities that help eliminate stress from the animals. Dr. Grandin was able to redesign slaughter facilities so that the animals were no longer stressed in the process. She also found that animals would rather walk in a curved chute then a straight one. Allowing the animals to walked in a curved shoot makes the animals less stressed and the process can go smoother for everyone involved. Her work also helped to develop the Double Rail Restrainer Conveyor for Livestock Handling, which is a scoring system to assess animal welfare. Dr. Grandin was able to show others how important it was to think like the animals and put yourself in their position.
Dr. Grandin wrote several books about her experiences with autism, including The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum, Emergence: Labeled Autistic, Thinking in Pictures, and Other Reports from My Life with Autism and many more. You can find a full list of her books at https://www.amazon.com/Temple-Grandin/e/B000AP9AQU. If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Temple Grandin but don’t necessarily want to read, there is a movie about her life. It’s called Temple Grandin and can be streamed from multiple platforms.
Grandin has helped to influence both the autism community as well as the agriculture industry. She made many contributions and I definitely suggest doing your own search about Dr. Grandin to see all the incredible work she has done!
Dr. Mary Engle Pennington (1872-1952)
Dr. Mary Engle Pennington helped to create safer food preservation, handing, storage, and transportation. Her work impacted not only the health of humans but the health of future generations.
After studying chemistry and graduating with a Ph.D, she joined what is known today as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She became the FDA’s first female lab chief, where she was able to further improve the standards of safe processing different products. She helped to develop the safe processing of chicken and spoilage-free methods of storing poultry and eggs. Pennington even created multiple inventions that helped to keep food safe. These inventions included a poultry-cooling rank, bacteria-resistant method of treating eggs and a sterile food products container. Later in her career, she helped to oversee the design and construction of refrigerated warehouses and home refrigerators.
Pennington was the first women elected to the Poultry Historical Society Hall of Fame in 1959 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2018. She was also awarded the Garvin-Olin Medal, which is the highest award a women can earn by the American Chemical Society.
So, next time you walk into the grocery store and see your favorite refrigerated and frozen foods make sure to thank Dr. Mary Engle Pennington for her pioneering work.
Thanks for Reading!
There are many other influential women not covered in this blog post including Dr. Evangelina Villegas, Dr Maria Andrade, and many more. After reading this post, I encourage you to go do your own search and see what influential women in agriculture you can find. I also encourage you to start noticing and thanking women in the agriculture industry!
I’ve been lucky enough to have many great female role models in the agriculture industry and couldn’t be more thankful for their help in getting me where I am today! So, thank you to all of the women in agriculture in my life, I appreciate you!
Stay tuned for the next blog on The Farmer’s Daughter! Thanks for reading!