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Oklahoma City resident educates women in agriculture

 
BY SUSAN SIMPSON | Published: March 24, 2010    Comment on this article Leave a comment

Tammy Gray-Steele is proud to call herself an "AgriDiva,” a term she uses to describe women proud to be working the land or landing the work that fuels the agriculture industry.

photo - Oklahoma City resident Tammy Gray-Steele is executive director of the National Women in Agriculture Association. Photo by Steve Gooch, The Oklahoman
Oklahoma City resident Tammy Gray-Steele is executive director of the National Women in Agriculture Association. Photo by Steve Gooch, The Oklahoman

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By the numbers
Female farm operators rise

→Women were the principal operators of 306,209 U.S. farms in 2007, up from 237,819 farms in 2002.

→The average age of female operators was 54 years old.

→More than 90 percent of female operators are white.

Source: USDA National Agriculture Statistical Service

AgriDivas may work on family farms, tend backyard gardens or write grants from an office tower. They are scientists, CEOs and tillers of soil.

But often they are unrecognized as an economic force that is diverse but growing, she said.

Two years ago, Gray-Steele formed the National Women in Agriculture Association. Based in Oklahoma City, it is a way to unite, educate and promote women in agriculture.

"We want to help women focus and become an expert in her field,” she said. "We are trying to get women to see it’s not what it used to be. There’s technology and there’s help.”

National Women in Agriculture now has several hundred members in 10 states. The Oklahoma group operates a farmers market each summer in northeast Oklahoma City and is planning an urban program for youth interested in agriculture and nutrition.

The association helped market vendor Mildred Bert, 62, acquire a hoop house so she can grow more vegetables.

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