Florida: Women & Farming

From Miami Herald:

Women have always participated in farm life, but historically in the background as wives and daughters. Now they're taking charge.

About 460 Miami-Dade farms, or nearly 20 percent, are run by women -- a share that is inching up even as agricultural acreage dwindles. In Broward, the figure is 157 farms, or nearly 30 percent.

Consider these numbers from the U.S. Census of Agriculture: In 2002, 11 percent of the nation's 2.1 million principal farm operators were women; five years later, the figure had risen to 14 percent. In 2007, 22 percent of Florida's farms were run by women, a 28 percent increase in five years.

``It's been a slow, steady evolution, much of it due to the nursery industry,'' says Debbie Brady, president of Florida Agri-Women, founded in 2003.