Gender Equality: The Future of the Food & Farming Industry- Celebrate International Women’s Day 2020

Although women are commonly seen as cooks and homemakers, how can they grow to be seen as changemakers, and put themselves at the forefront of the food and farming industry? Gender-specific obstacles such as lack of access to land, finance, agricultural training, suitable working conditions and equal treatment often put women on the back foot before they ever plough a field, put on chef's whites, or think about setting up viable food businesses. Yet women are doing amazing things in food policy, nutrition, farming, founding food businesses, and sustainability. While the world is focusing on the contribution of women for International Women's Day on the 8th March and its theme of #EachForEqual, what can we do to help make the food and farming industry more equal for the whole year?

Mecca Ibrahim FRSA is co-founder of Women In the Food Industry, an initiative which started with a series of events championing and discussing the issues facing women in the food industry. Since then the initiative has helped to shine a spotlight on what women are doing within the food world through interviews and podcasts with inspiring women. We are passionate about the narrative powers of food but believe the culture of the food industry has to change toward gender equality.

Catherine Broomfield is working alongside the RSA's Food Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC). She is a farmer/campaigner/food policy student. Catherine has worked in farming for 20 years, and lives with her family on her grassland livestock farm in East Devon. She is an advocate for the role of native breeds in sustainable grass-based systems of food production and environmental management. Aside from farming, her entrepreneurial business career has encompassed journalism, rural enterprise, and high-tech engineering. Through her consultancy, Broomfield Solutions, she works with like-minded people and organisations, working towards policy and practice to achieve a just and sustainable food system in the service of healthy people and planet.

Jess Latchford is Director of Waste Knot. With over 10 years’ experience in the fresh produce industry, supplying directly into all types of catering outlets and working closely with farmers all over the UK, Jess witnessed the colossal amount of produce being cast aside for the sake of aesthetics alone. With a drive to help stop this ever-growing problem, Waste Knot was born. 

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