skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Wanted: Dakota Women Landowners Invested in Conservation

play audio
Play

Tuesday, February 13, 2018   

PIERRE, S.D. – Increasingly, women are the landowners on farms, but they often lack access to conservation programs and resources. That's why the American Farmland Trust is starting the Women for the Land initiative.

Jennifer Filipiak, Midwest director of the trust, says the key is to get information to an often overlooked group: non-operating landowners - that is, owners who aren't farming the land themselves.

In South Dakota, 60 percent of farmland is rented out. Filipiak says women have shown a lot of interest in conservation but don't always know where to start.

"There are gender barriers," she notes. "Those barriers are very real. I've talked to hundreds of women landowners in the Midwest, and I hear it pop up again and again. You know, agriculture is dominated by males, and so it's hard. It's sometimes hard for them to get the information."

Across the country, more than 300 million acres are farmed or co-farmed by women and nearly 90 million acres are in the hands of women landowners. The trust says that number is likely to increase as farmers retire or leave their land to the next generation.

The initiative is focused on three areas. First, it wants to gather more research on women landowners and the barriers they face. Next, the trust wants to gather more so-called "learning circles," which help to connect women in agriculture. And last, the organization is providing technical assistance and advocating for policy changes to help women landowners.

Filipiak says there's a lot owners can do to help their land.

"Wanting to protect the soil from erosion," she adds. "Wanting to rebuild organic matter in the soil, wanting to have good pollinator habitat and beneficial insects on your farm, wanting to make sure that the water that runs off the farm is clean and it's not taking soil and fertilizer with it - these are all things that we can manage."

Filipiak says communication between farmers and landowners is pivotal when it comes to land-management practices.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021