Hot News

3.18.2008

By CARYL VELISEK
Staff Writer

WEST FRIENDSHIP, Md. —
A Maryland Women’s Ag Forum was held at the Howard County Fairgrounds March 12.
I’m not sure how many have been held, but I do know I was part of the first one that was held more than 25 years ago, and I have been to every one since.
The whole thing came about when a group of us went to the National Ag Women’s Forum in Washington, D.C.
Madeleine Greene, who was with Montgomery County Extension at the time; Martha Clark, wife of a Howard County farmer; Patsy Stabler, wife of a Montgomery County farmer; and I, wife of a Howard County beef producer, stepped out during a break and walked around the Mall, excitedly discussing what we had heard that morning.
By the end of our walk, we had decided Maryland needed an Ag Women’s Forum, and when we went home we began work on one right away.
We looked for people who were talking about innovation and new technologies in agriculture and we found some really good ones.
The forum was a great success.
The speakers we chose were exciting and relevant to the times and when it was over, we started planning the next one. The forum went well for several years and then attendance started to drop off.
Women were working off the farm more and more, often by necessity, and there didn’t seem to be time for many meetings, seminars or forums, so the forum was dropped. Some time later, there was a revival of the Maryland Ag Women’s Forum and it was successful again for a time.
Then things changed again and attendance fell off. Now we are having them once more.
What struck me at this one in 2008 is the differences that have occurred not only in agriculture, but also in farm women, and the differences in subject matter that the forums have covered over the years.
The first ones, those many years ago, dealt mostly with how farm wives could be a part of the farming operation and what contributions they could make to the enterprise in addition to the usual farm wife chores. The second batch of forums saw more farm men having to take part-time jobs to stay in farming.
There were more women becoming the lead farmer and the forums dealt with that.
It also dealt with coping with working off the farm and still being a part of the operation.
This time around, at the Maryland Women In Agriculture Forum, we were talking about women as the principal owner/operator, and ways for the farming operation to be viable in a different marketplace than our husbands, parents and grandparents ever dreamed of.
Yes, the times they are a changin’!
And things are still looking pretty exciting.