ONE WOMAN, ONE FARM

Audrey Levatino shares her farming knowledge in her new book ‘Woman-Powered Farms’

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Audrey Levatino is a self-sufficient farmer — she has to be since, she runs it singlehandedly. So when it came to using a chainsaw, she knew she had to overcome her trepidation.

“I didn’t start using a chainsaw when I first started farming for three or four years because I was afraid of it. I always asked my husband to do it. But once you learn how, it’s easier than a lot of things women do every day,” Levatino says. “It’s intimidating because it always seems like it’s been in the realm of the man’s world, but it’s not. It’s just another tool.”

That’s one tip Levatino gives in her new book Woman-Powered Farm, which she’ll be taking to the Boulder Book Store on June 22. The book serves as a practical how-to guide for farmers with advice from Levatino and other female farmers she interviewed. Her desire, she says, was to make a manual that she didn’t have when she first started.

Levatino wasn’t always a farmer. She grew up in New Mexico and then lived in Boulder where she attended the University of Colorado and became a high school English teacher. Then in 2004 she moved with her husband to Virginia, where they purchased a small farm house that came with 23 acres. She started a small kitchen garden, but her itch to farm kept growing, and she became a full-time farmer in 2008. Her main focus is growing a wide variety of specialty cut flowers, and she also sells produce, herbs, honey and eggs. She strives to make her farm as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible with practices such as using no herbicides or pesticides. Besides better quality food, Levatino says there are several benefits of farming.

“Holistically, you feel great. If you have a little piece of land and you’ve made progress on it, no matter how small your endeavor, even if it’s just your backyard in the city, you go back there and you have this feeling of contentment and peace,” she says. “And you actually have this tangible example of your effort that you’ve put in and have gotten back from the earth. …” 

“But on a wider scale it’s more in terms of the community I’ve met and that I’ve been exposed to. … I never really felt as at home in the Charlottesville, Virginia area, when I was teaching, than I did when I became a member of this farming community. It’s very welcoming and warm and giving, and everybody is focused on similar goals.”

While Levatino has a very supportive community and says she’s never suffered discrimination for her gender, she has noticed an air of condescension from some people.

“When you tell people wide eyed and bushy tailed, ‘I’m going to be a flower farmer!’ They kind of look at you and say, ‘Yeah, sure you are kid.’…” she says. “They didn’t take me all that seriously. … That’s a big part of it like, ‘Who are you, and why do you think you can be a farmer?’ And I’m a small person, 5’2 110 lbs., so I don’t look like a big farmer person.  But then again, most of the women I interviewed are around my size.”

In talking with other woman for the book, Levatino says they’ve also encountered similar situations. From her interview with Temple Grandin, Levatino says the farming icon felt like being a woman was her biggest stumbling block, especially working in the male-dominated livestock industry.

The stigma against women farmers didn’t always exist. Historically, Levatino says, women were the ones in charge of the farm work.

“In America, Native American men were all out fighting wars,” she says. “I did some research, and there was one Native American woman who, when asked if men help on the farm, she laughed and said, ‘Are you kidding me? Only if they have nothing else to do or were left behind or are too young.’ 

“That’s what the women did. They planted, they harvested, they cooked and they preserved for the winter, while the men were out killing beasts and fighting wars. And as I did more research, that was pretty much the case in most societies. …”

“But then mechanization of farming brought in the big agro business, and it shut out women in the sense that it became a boy’s club pretty quickly.”

Women stepped in again during World War I and II. As time went on, it became easier and more common for women to enter the farming industry.

Reporting on the numbers improved as well. About a decade ago, Levatino says, the census changed their system, which previously favored men.

“Women were already co-owners or co-contributors to farms, but they just weren’t being put on the census because they only needed one name, and it was always the man’s name,” she says.

The reports also started to include small-acreage and minority farms, which are mostly run by women. Currently, the census reports that 14 percent of the country’s farms are run by women, but Levatino says that number is still an underestimate.

Among the many benefits of having more women, and others, farming in general, she says, is to bring new perspectives. More points of views will lead to development in the industry, especially in areas such as green practices.

“The more diversity you have in any field, the more chance there is for innovation and the more chance there is for positive results,” she says. “If it’s all about going the same way and in the same vein then it becomes this trench and this idea, ‘Well we’ve always done it that way.’ But we need change.”

And that change is on the horizon. With recent developments including urban and community gardens, Levatino says farming is a hot market.

“Somebody called it a farming/agriculture renaissance, where people are becoming more interested in it. I think that’s true, and like anything, it’s cyclical,” she says. “It’s a wonderful time to be starting. People are very open about it. We’ve got all these farm-to-table initiatives, to buy fresh, buy local. We’ve got more farmers’ markets opening up all over the place. We’ve got people wanting to garden in small spaces, and just learn about how things grow and where they come from and what it takes to do this … I think it’s a great time to go into farming, it’s really innovative place to be.”

When writing Woman-Powered Farm, Levatino was inspired, motivated and empowered in talking to other female farmers. And the book might inspire others to follow in Levatino’s path.

“Don’t be intimidated because it’s been shut off from you,” she says. “Get out there and get on that tractor and use that chainsaw. You can do it.”

ON THE BILL: Woman-Powered Farm — Audrey Levatino. 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 22, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-447-2074.