Healthy Living website, Rodale.com has recently published an article about the rise of female farmers, not only across the United States, but globally as well.  Unabashedly titled “The Girl Next Door Is the Future of Food,” the gist of the article is that:

Women in farming is a red-hot trend. Gap fashion aside, women’s growing interest in sustainable, small-scale farming is leading to farmer’s markets full of healthier food for communities. And while the ActionAid report looked at women in agriculture in other parts of the world, rest assured, it’s a phenomenon that’s bringing food that’s healthier food for people and the planet here in the United States, too. The last United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) most recent U.S. Ag Census showed that women small-scale farm owners are the fastest-growing demographic surveyed.

So once again, women save the world.

While some organizations that support women in agricultural industries are quick to point out the feminist symbolism, it should be noted that gardening and horticultural clubs are as 1950′s American housewife as an apple pie cooling in the kitchen window.

And it starts early.  If you’re on the University of Michigan campus, you can join groups like Cultivating Community, a student group for those interested in small-scale organic gardening and sustainable food systems. But of course, it’s open to men and women.

So get growing!

-B.C.Bodnar