The key to the future of food | Audra Mulkern | TEDxSeattle

In this 2020 TEDxSeattle talk, Audra Mulkern shares her journey to put female farmers back in the picture. She wants to help them mow down the “grass ceiling” and drive the agricultural industry forward.

Audra explains how female farmers have fed the nation in times of crisis - despite having harder times accessing loans and credit. Foregoing pie charts and graphs for photographs and personal stories, her talk demonstrates why the “grass ceiling” should be a concern for all of us.

4:27 - The challenges facing a modern female farmer
10:45 - How COVID-19 has impacted the farmer

More to explore:
Learn more about Audra and the Female Farmer Project: https://www.femalefarmerproject.org/
Learn more about Karen Washington, mentioned in Audra’s talk, as she explains her work as a community activist, a community gardener and board member of the New York Botanical Gardens - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFDKsvcjfYs
Listen to Devita Davison explain how features of Detroit's decay actually make it an ideal spot for urban agriculture in her talk “How urban agriculture is transforming Detroit” - https://www.ted.com/talks/devita_davison_how_urban_agriculture_is_transforming_detroit Audra Mulkern is a James Beard nominee, writer, photographer, and international speaker who’s changing the way we see the people who grow our food.

Mulkern didn’t plan her career journey. She saw gaps in the visual representation of modern agriculture and decided to learn photography, which then prompted her to take writing classes and later, visit speaking coaches. In the spirit of the Spanish poet Antonio Machado, who said, “…there is no path, the path is made by walking,” Mulkern forged her path by following her intuition and seeing where it could take her.

She’s become a voice for agriculture and farmers around the world, most notably for the fastest growing demographic in agriculture—the female farmer. She is currently working on a documentary film called, Women’s Work: The Untold Story of America’s Female Farmers. Her stories offer a unique, and often unseen perspective that reminds us that seeing, really seeing, peoples’ faces and hands’ can change the way we think. She says, “I’m just one person, but by partnering with other people, we can make significant changes in peoples’ lives.”

Mulkern has received numerous honors for her work in agriculture, including being named one of 45 “Amazing Women” in Readers Digest Country Woman Magazine. Other awards include the 2018 PCC Farmland Trust Barn Raiser, 2018 Tilth Alliance ‘Advocate of the Year’, and 2015 Cascade Harvest Coalition Wendell Berry award. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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