November Farming for Justice Discussion Group

Wednesday, November 13th

9am-10:30 am

Join online via Zoom or in-person

There is no cost to join! You’re encouraged to attend in person or join us by Zoom. (Zoom info will be shared once you register.) The discussion will be recorded.

Register here.

Though rarely discussed, sexuality is an important part of how farms operate. According to the USDA, 98% of farms in the US are “family farms,” where a farmer’s business partner is also an intimate partner. As such, sexuality – who and how we build romantic and sexual relationships with others – affects how and why people farm, where people farm, and how farmers access land. Despite its concern with social justice, the sustainable agriculture movement has yet to fully consider LGBTQ+ issues as a critical point of equity; heteronormativity has remained baked into typical notions of who is a farmer in the US. Queer people are sometimes marginalized within rural and farming communities, impacting their livelihoods as food producers and as rural queer people. At the same time, because queer farmers often do not follow typical paths in family and farming, their experiences offer alternative ideas for organizing home and farm life. In this presentation, Michaela Hoffelmeyer, Ike Leslie, and Jaclyn Wypler will discuss the lived experiences of queer farmers, drawing on over 100 interviews of queer farmers in the Northeast and Midwest United States. We will discuss barriers and opportunities expressed by queer farmers as well as for the future of the sustainable agriculture movement.

Michaela (or Mic) is a Rural Sociology Master’s student at Pennsylvania State University. Michaela studies gender, sexuality, and sustainable agriculture, primarily in the US. 

Email: mkh40@psu.edu. 

Isaac (or Ike) is a Sociology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ike researches queer farmers in New England as well as alternative food systems in Argentina. 

Email: ileslie2@wisc.edu

Website: isaacleslie.com. 

Jaclyn (or Jac) is a Sociology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jac studies queer women and transgender sustainable farmers in the Midwest as well as queer farmers in PNW and Australia. She helps organize the Queer Farmer Convergence and loves sharing queer farmer resources. 

Email: wypler@wisc.edu Website jaclynwypler.com. 

Contact us with questions or to suggest a topic or speaker.