AAW - 35 Years and Going Strong

It’s a great privilege to serve as AAW President for the coming two years! We had a wonderful convention in Oregon, thanks to the efforts of many members of Oregon Women for Agriculture. Thank you, OWA Members, President Tricia Chastain, and Convention Chairs Alice Dettwyler and Judy McClaughry!

I was installed as President 35 years to the day after AAW was formed, and I have thought much about those who founded this organization and all who have worked over those 35 years to bring us to where we are today. Kansas Agri-Women held a reception at our December meeting, and some old friends of our organization came, including former legislators and other agriculture organization representatives we’d worked with over the past 35 years. One of them remarked, “You know the times now are not unlike those that got this organization started.” I thought that was a wise observation. Women in agriculture came together to start our affiliate organizations and AAW in times when agriculture was besieged with concerns.

In the history of the first 20 years of AAW, Sharon Steffens and Pat Cohill wrote, "Beset with many serious problems, American Agriculture, as a fragmented industry, lacked a single voice through which to speak to bring about effective change. Many felt agriculture needed to develop a voice to speak for the entire industry. Women were to play an important role in developing a united voice for agriculture. In 1969, a group of women in Oregon organized as a result of government regulations banning farmers burning fields. Oregon Women for Agriculture (OWA) stood alone, for their husbands were too busy farming to respond and fight the forces that were determining the course of American Agriculture."

"Two years later, in 1971, Connee Canfield, unaware of OWA’s existence, founded Women for the Survival of Agriculture in Michigan. The WSAM’s realized that the problems of agriculture were national in scope and required a national organization to respond effectively.” Here in Kansas, it was the Beef Boycott that led Barbara Bausch and others to form an organization. Laura Heuser and Pat Cohill traveled the country, speaking and organizing women in agriculture. Thirty-five years later, we mourn the recent passing of Laura Heuser and celebrate what she began.

A (male) friend from college who is farming in Illinois sent a message on Facebook which I received this morning: “So now you are president of a bunch of women farmers. What is your agenda for the year? I am concerned about some of the bills that are being passed.”

AAW has a great history of being a strong voice for agriculture and an effective grassroots in influencing policy and legislation. Our agenda includes many initiatives for informing ourselves and others about the importance of agriculture and policies which will benefit this vital industry. We have tools we’ve used over the years to communicate plus many new ones via the internet. Please visit your website often: htpp://americanagriwomen.org, and make sure you’re signed up under the Legislation tab, Grassroots Advocacy Center, to receive Action Alerts. Wherever you are, you can make a difference that will benefit agriculture. I firmly believe today as when AAW was founded, “We Can Do It Together.”