Queer Farmers: Sexuality and the Transition to Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Intimate relationships are foundational to farm viability. They affect how farmers share tasks, earn income, and access land, yet the role of sexuality and heteronormativity in agriculture remains understudied. Furthermore, queer people are largely ignored as potential farmers by the sustainable agriculture and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements. I document the lived experiences of queer farmers, an underresearched group, through participant observation and interviews with 30 sustainable farmers of various genders and sexualities in New England. I use a queer perspective to illuminate sexualized and heteronormative patterns in sustainable agriculture. Whereas the perception of rural heterosexism can discourage queer participation in agriculture, queer farmers faced less overt heterosexism than they expected. However, they did experience heterosexism particular to sustainable agriculture, and confronting it might jeopardize relationships important for economic and environmental sustainability and land access. Some farmers were attracted to sustainable agriculture for reasons specific to gender, sexuality, and anticapitalist values. I argue that sexuality and heteronormativity are embedded in farmer recruitment, retention, and land acquisition, which are critical for the transition to sustainable agriculture. I offer the sustainable agriculture movement a lens for envisioning alternatives for farm families, homes, and workplaces.

Gaining Ground: An Exploration into the Lives of Missouri's Lesbian Farmers

“…While there has been an increase in women principal operators on United States farms in recent years, up to 14% between the 2007 and 2012 agricultural censuses (USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service [USDA NASS], 2014a), research has created a new iteration of invisible farmers in ignoring the experiences of lesbian farmers. This is an example of the heterosexism that persists within the sustainable agriculture movement (Leslie, 2017). While sustainable agriculture is often considered a more progressive and equitable space in the larger landscape of American agriculture, it is still bound by many heterosexist norms.…”

Relational Agriculture: Gender, Sexuality, and Sustainability in U.S. Farming

“…There are no existing quantitative studies on queer and transgender farmers, and the government does not collect information on sexuality and gender identity in the U.S. or USDA censuses. 3 Nevertheless, several U.S. and Canadian scholars (Edward 2018;Fellows 1998;Leslie 2017bLeslie , 2019Wypler 2019) and an ecofeminist activist in Catalonia (Dur an Gurnsey 2016) have conducted qualitative studies. In addition, an interdisciplinary group of researchers in California carried out a digital storytelling project with sexually diverse immigrant farmers (Lizarazo et al 2017).…”

“…Many of the existing studies on queer farmers (Dur an Gurnsey 2016; Edward 2018; Leslie 2017b)as well those this issue (Leslie 2019; Wypler 2019)are based on samples of sustainable farmers. Some participants drew explicit connections between their queerness and sustainable practices (Edward 2018), such as extending the deep questioning inherent to the coming out process to realms beyond sexuality like capitalism and industrial agriculture (Leslie 2017b). Yet LGBTQþ farm owners may also farm industrially, as suggested by the Cultivating Change Foundation (2019), an organization comprised of LGBTQþ people in industrial agriculture, sponsored by agribusiness giants like Tyson and Monsanto.…”

“…Fourth, to provide support systems for rural women and queer farmers amongst a stifling culture of hegemonic masculinity, funding should be allocated for queer and women farmer organizations, which research shows have helped queer farmers thrive (Wypler 2019) and women farmers become "changemakers" (Carter 2017). Fifth, because of the general lack of queer support networks in agriculture and the importance of queer farmer mentors to beginning queer farmers (Leslie 2017b(Leslie , 2019Wypler 2019), agricultural apprenticeship programs should offer the option for mentor farmers to list themselves as "LGBTQþ" or "LGBTQþ friendly." Sixth, states can follow California's lead in enacting legislation similar to the 2017 Farmer Equity Act to bring more socially disadvantaged farmers into the policy-making arena (Collins 2017), but should include LGBTQþ farmers in the list of groups that qualify.…”

“…The replication of these traditional gender and sexual relations in industrial and alternative agriculture is what rural queer theorists call the reproduction of the heteronormativity of the family farm (Keller 2015;Leslie 2017b). A queer lens on agriculture asks how heteronormativity impacts gender dynamics and sexual minorities in agriculture.…”