Civic agriculture is characterized in the literature as complementary and embedded social and economic
strategies that provide economic benefits to farmers at the
same time that they ostensibly provide socio-environmental benefits to the community. This paper presents some
ways in which women farmers practice civic agriculture.
The data come from in-depth interviews with women
practicing agriculture in Pennsylvania. Some of the strategies women farmers use to make a living from the farm
have little to do with food or agricultural products, but all
are a product of the process of providing a living for
farmers while meeting a social need in the community.
Most of the women in our study also connect their business
practices to their gender identity in rural and agricultural
communities, and redefine successful farming in opposition
to traditional views of economic rationality.