September 3, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of American Family Farmer, host Doug Stephan (www.eastleighfarm.com) welcomes Svitlana “Lana” Synkovska, Portfolio Director of Women in Agribusiness (WIA): http://womeninag.com.
They discuss:
👩🌾 How Women in Agribusiness is empowering women across the agriculture and food sectors
🌍 The growth of the WIA community — from 200 attendees in 2012 to over 1,000 in 2024
🤝 Networking, events, and initiatives helping women build careers in agribusiness
🏆 The Demeter Award of Excellence and how it honors women breaking barriers
🎓 Student scholarships that connect young leaders with career opportunities
📅 What to expect at the upcoming 14th Annual WIA Summit in Orlando, September 22–24
It’s an inspiring look at how women are shaping the future of agriculture through innovation, leadership, and collaboration.
Website: AmericanFamilyFarmerShow.com
Social Media: @GoodDayNetworks
They discuss:
👩🌾 How Women in Agribusiness is empowering women across the agriculture and food sectors
🌍 The growth of the WIA community — from 200 attendees in 2012 to over 1,000 in 2024
🤝 Networking, events, and initiatives helping women build careers in agribusiness
🏆 The Demeter Award of Excellence and how it honors women breaking barriers
🎓 Student scholarships that connect young leaders with career opportunities
📅 What to expect at the upcoming 14th Annual WIA Summit in Orlando, September 22–24
It’s an inspiring look at how women are shaping the future of agriculture through innovation, leadership, and collaboration.
Website: AmericanFamilyFarmerShow.com
Social Media: @GoodDayNetworks
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The American Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron,
The Safe proven Way to lose weight. Check it all
out at toploss dot com. I'm Doug Stephan. This is
the American Family Farmer. Lana Sankovska is here with us
on the American Family Farmer discussing women in agriculture. So
let's talk about you for a minute and find out
(00:20):
what your vision is and how this all got started
as women in agribusiness business.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
What's the scoop on you?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Wow? Hi, Hi, thank you so much for inviting me.
It's a big pleasure and honor. My name is Lana Sinkovska.
I'm spent all my conscious life in every business like
twenty years. It sounds crazy, but it is. I was
starting from editorial chair and I was doing a lot
of marketing and events across the whole value chain up
(00:49):
agri business. I've organized events in thirty countries of the world,
mostly for commodity tradings for grains, wheat, sunflower, barley, corn,
but also for inputs markets. And last year I've got
this amazing invitation to join this fantastic and real like
legendary event women in a group business. So of course
(01:13):
I said yes, because I do believe that taking this role,
it's literally a quintessence of all my career being a
female leader in a group business. It was a little
bit more challenging twenty ten years ago than now. So
I'm very happy to be part of this fantastic event.
And this is, as I said, legendary event with a huge,
(01:33):
huge history. This year we are having fourteenth edition of
Women in a Group Business. So yeah, it's been here
for a while.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So you're having an event, it's next month, is it?
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Not?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
The women?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
This is a seminar or a summit maybe is a
better way of placing here September twenty second to twenty
fourth down in Orlando. So why first of all the
need for this organization.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And then why the need for the annual convention.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
We do believe that in your business, for very long time,
have been considered to be like a male you know,
mostly male business. But we have seen for the last
ten years that we have this generation these you know,
so many amazing women, so many bright business leaders, female leaders,
and we do believe that it's important for all of
(02:27):
us to gather together one time in a year and
just to celebrate our achievements and to support each other.
And it's not just a networking event or professional development event.
It's a really hardcore market data market inside event. So
it's about equipping women with the market data, but also
creating the opportunity to network and to celebrate our achievements.
(02:50):
Because it's a really, it's a really it's not easy,
especially if you started like ten, twenty thirty years ago
being a female leader. It was a challenging then, and
it's important for us to meet, to support each other
and to share this inspiration.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So under the circumstances, I am very supportive of this
idea and the movement. I guess I'm wondering whether the
focus is on women ownership, women who work and run farms,
or both.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
We have very interesting audience. It's literally everyone across the
value chain. When we have been understanding trying to put
together the key segments of our delegates, doing this analysis,
I was impressed to see that we have like ten
percent of farm owners and rangers, twelve percent of top
(03:40):
management leaders in input segments. We have meat and poultry segments,
we have marketing, we have legal companies, we have literally
so many different segments represented different parts of value change
of every business. So it's really important that this event
is so diverse. It's like a small all American agriculture
(04:01):
meeting in one room and interest. In fact, we have
more than thirty five percent of C level or owners
of the business, so it's president's CEO or owners. So
I think this is impressive.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Lana Sankovska is here with us on the American Family
Farmer discussing women in agriculture. We continue in a matter
of moments, I'm Doug Stephan and she's not. She could
be Elizabeth Miller. However, as a matter of fact.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
She is. Elizabeth Miller.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Is one of the great reasons for going to top
loss dot com and engaging in the work of caltrin
getting that weight off the natural way.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Caltrin is different than everything else out there because it's
really good for you. It's actually drug free, stimulant free,
so it's good for you. We've been helping customers since
nineteen ninety seven. That's up for two hundred thousand happy customers,
so I know we've just helped people all over the
United States lose way. So if you go to toplass
dot com, you'll say the Caldron Selle right there. But
(04:58):
we do also, like Doug said, put together their custom packages.
Usually they're available by email or our Facebook page, or
you can call us and we'll put together something custom
for you that will also have some special pricing on there.
And then of course Doug has a promo code. If
you use the promo code Doug, that's going to say
you own shipping on all orders.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Elizabeth Miller from the folks at Caldertrin.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Thanks Elizabeth.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Back on the American Family Farmer. As we continue our
focus on women in Agribusiness and their summit which is
taking place in Orlando comes September the twenty second, twenty third,
and twenty fourth. This is the fourteenth time this has happened,
started back in twenty twelve. How long has Lana Senkovska
(05:46):
been involved. I guess that would be a good question
to ask her. I think in terms of clarification, I
know you've been involved for quite a while. You are
Ukrainian national. I guess maybe as an aside, there must
be a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Because of what's going on in Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
This has nothing the question has nothing to do with
women in agriculture just has to do with you as
a human being. What do you think when you look
at what's going on in your native land.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Well, it's very painful and for me spending like dedicating
all my life for like in a grid business. Knowing
how huge and powerful Ukraine's agri business, it's even harder
and more painful to see that it's also destroying this industry.
And I talk to many farmers in the United States
(06:32):
that do. Farmers are very resilient people because farmers have
nothing else but their land. So unfortunately, it's easier for
seity people to leave their apartment and go to another country.
But if you own the farm, it's like a connection
you can just cut like that. It's that that just
makes it even harder for people who live in village
in rural areas, for farmers, because they just can't live
(06:55):
their land. This is so painful to watch what's going
on and all the video when farmers where literally this
you know, bulletproof vest and trying to make these plantings
or harvesting, surrounded by people who have this armor to
shot Russian dronze. It's insane. But this is I think
(07:16):
one of the amazing stories for future generations and example
for all every business people across the world, because if
you're a farmer, it's not easy to make you leave
your land, make you leave your piece of land. You
will be staying there and trying to do what you
do no matter what. And I think all farmers across
the world showed in different moments that resilience and this
(07:39):
is something impressive, and this is something still very very
difficult to watch. And yes, this is something you know,
something I watch precisely every year, the crop forecast, the
harvesting a campaign and Ukraine still managed to export some
volumes of grains even now through the border with poland
(07:59):
not much through the ports because of what's going on.
But it's I think the whole This situation once again
shows that people in general are like resilient, and farmers
and a group business is a very resilient business because
even if everything against you, if you have a will
and if you dedicated to what you're doing, you will
keep on going.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Women in Agribusiness our focus Women in ag dot com
is the website where you can find out more information
about what's going on and especially a focus on the
women in agribusiness. Summer taking place in Orlando September the
twenty second, twenty third, and twenty fourth. Let me ask
you something that may be considered somewhat controversial. I noticed
(08:43):
as most groups like yours need sponsorships and you're invite
in people who are obviously in the ag business. Do
you get con do you get pushback? I was gonna
say conflict, but pushback from people who realize that Smithfield,
one of your corporate members, is a Chinese owned company
and creating a lot of concern among a lot of
(09:04):
American farmers and a lot of people who purchased the products.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
And I mean, I'm asking.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
The question because I think it's a legitimate question. Do
you have to do people know that? Do they confront it?
Do you have thoughts about it? I guess just underscoring
the connection that seems to be somewhat controversial.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well, we didn't have any problems and any feedback or
any like you know, comments on their behalf. And yes
we're in commercial events, but also we have several amazing
social impact initiatives, including students scholarships. So this which makes
our event a little bit different at all these commercial
events because for example, for all these years, we all
(09:51):
together have this students scholarship for more than one point
three million dollars. So every year we selected group of students.
It's like a company. It's we got about seventy applications
this year and we select about twenty five students. So
we pay for the students accommodation. We have a special
(10:12):
we create a special program for them, and I think
it's an amazing start for young female professional when you
know nothing in the business, got this support, being able
to meet with these amazing women. Also, we pair them
to some female like a mentorship program. So I think
our event is not just a commercial event. It has
(10:33):
a lot of angles of social impact and making it
so unique and different. And talking about sponsors, yeah, yeah,
we have something.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I'm going to say, you'll be congratulated on doing that
because a lot of I think what we're finding, I
think around the country. I know I find it my
neck of the woods. Women are interested. Actually more young
women are interested in getting into agribusiness, into farming than men,
and it's kind of created a circumstance where there isn't
(11:02):
there hasn't been any leadership. That was one of the
reasons I wanted to have you on this program so
you could tell a story, so parents of youngsters who
are on the farm can pass this along, or people
living in rural America who are looking to get into
farming or back into farming. This is a way for
you to find a door that is open, that has
(11:22):
lots of help.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
From people like you.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
And I think that's you should pass yourself on the
back for that.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, let me comment my observation when we have been
attand in different trade shows this year to promote women
in ad we have these families of farmers coming to
us with young girls and father who is a farmer,
who say, okay, she's my daughter and she will be
next in my farm because she likes it, she wants
to do it, and I have some too, But my son,
he's not interested. So you know, we live in this
(11:50):
interested time that now it's not about a gender which
defies who will be the next farmer. It's about who
really likes it and who has a character agreed and
who really enjoys being a farmer. Because it's not for everyone.
It's hard. It's a very difficult job. You know.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I'm going to tell you a quick story. I'm a
dairy guy.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I raise Jersey replacement heifers on my farm and I
have a bovine sanctuary, and I do a lot to
support the Jersey brand, if you will. And I went
to a farm in upstate New York to buy some
heifers last year, and there was a husband and wife
team that was running this dairy. They had about one
(12:31):
hundred and eighty or ninety cows, a very beautiful herd, certainly.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Well managed, if you will.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
The genetics were fabulous, And so I started talking to
the husband and wife and asked about their relationship and
where The gentleman who ran the farm has two or
three children that are working on the farm, and he
said that The wife told me they weren't her children,
they were his first wife's children. And the wife didn't
(13:01):
want to stay on the farm, didn't like it too
much work, so she divorced her husband. Well, the lady
that he married found him on a farmer's only website.
She wanted to live on the farm. She grew up
on a farm and then she left the farm, but
she wanted to be back on the farm. She wanted
to find herself a farmer, and so when she came
(13:23):
in she kind of took over. That's the reason I'm
telling you the story. She was milking, but she was
happy to tell me about her job taking care of
the books and overseeing genetics and stuff along with the children.
I thought it was kind of a cool story, so
I relate it to you. Yeah, for no other reason
that it's a good story. Hold on a second, I
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Speaker 1 (15:38):
We're talking here this week in our interview segment with
Lana Sinkovska, who is the director, the portfolio director and
the Women of agric Business Community. They have their annual
convention down in Orlando twenty second of September, trying to
get young people to go down there. What do you
(15:59):
think is the biggest challenge and what do you find
by talking to the women that you are exposed to
when you are finding new members and when you talk
to the members have been.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
There for the fourteen years you've been in business. What
what do they tell you is the biggest.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Challenge I think for women in general, and we discussed
it many times that it's not always clear how to
build your career, how to you know to to to
move by this you know, stairs up, and we do
believe that many women have to be pioneers in this
industry and do some amazing things and became these industry
stars and opened these gates for the first time. In
(16:36):
some segments like Pameroon, she's amazing. She's a global famous
entrepreneur and opinion leader in biostimulants and biological inputs market.
But she was the first, and she created this amazing
halo of her personal brand and opened this door for
many other females. So I think that the most challenging
(16:58):
that for some segments of the business, many women have
to do something for the first time, build these careers
for the first time as females, and it's hard, it's challenging.
It has so many struggles that men don't see and
don't know. But it's still amazing. And I do believe
that if you're professional, if you're really good at what
you're doing, it doesn't matter who you are, what is
(17:20):
your gender, it doesn't matter if you are good. If
you are really professional, all doors will be open for you.
But sometimes you need a little bit more efforts on
different steps of your career. So I think the biggest
challenge is that many women is doing something in their
industries for the first time, and it's always a big
(17:42):
responsibility and big challenge.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Here's a question when it comes to women who are
already running farms in there paying attention.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I'm going to use one woman as an example. I'm
trying to remember her name. She is in her thirties.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
She inherited the family cherry farm in Washington State and
needed seventeen workers to harvest her crop, and ice came
in and raided her farm and took most of the
men and women who were working on the farm away
to deport them. As a result, she lost seventy percent
(18:18):
of her crop and has gone bankrupt. I wonder how
much discussion of that sort of thing will come up
this year.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yes, we definitely will be covering a lot of these
pressing topics, including what is going on on labor market,
including tariffs, including AI like, so many big changes happening
in twenty twenty five, and it's you know, of course,
it's impacting agriculture a lot, and some conversations will be
more painful than others. So we do have some panels
(18:49):
panel discussion because we think that for some topics, like
all the policy updates and tariffs and everything what's going
on what you mentioned, it's important to hear the voice
of different segments of agriculture and some industry associations because
it's important that the industry speak up and shout about
this problem and highlight that it is super important to
(19:13):
highlight that hybribusiness needs all the support, that it's not
easy to run the farm even in the good year,
and if you have some extra layers of challenges is
getting sometimes unbearable.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Well, I think you've done a great job in putting
all of this together and as a spokesperson for women
in Agribusiness, continued success to you, especially when it comes
to this event in September. Going to the website is
probably a good idea for many of you who are
interested in pursuing the information, perhaps going to this event
Women in egg dot com, Women inagg dot com. Thanks
(19:48):
to Lana Sinkovska. This program was produced above kasound and
recording Please vi is abobksound dot com. The American Family
Farmer podcast, sponsored in part by Caldron, which is the
safe way for you to lose weight and keep it off.
The American Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron,
The Safe proven Way to lose weight. Check it all
out at toploss dot com. I'm Doug Stephan. This is
the American Family Farmer. Lana Sankovska is here with us
on the American Family Farmer discussing women in agriculture. So
let's talk about you for a minute and find out
(00:20):
what your vision is and how this all got started
as women in agribusiness business.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
What's the scoop on you?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Wow? Hi, Hi, thank you so much for inviting me.
It's a big pleasure and honor. My name is Lana Sinkovska.
I'm spent all my conscious life in every business like
twenty years. It sounds crazy, but it is. I was
starting from editorial chair and I was doing a lot
of marketing and events across the whole value chain up
(00:49):
agri business. I've organized events in thirty countries of the world,
mostly for commodity tradings for grains, wheat, sunflower, barley, corn,
but also for inputs markets. And last year I've got
this amazing invitation to join this fantastic and real like
legendary event women in a group business. So of course
(01:13):
I said yes, because I do believe that taking this role,
it's literally a quintessence of all my career being a
female leader in a group business. It was a little
bit more challenging twenty ten years ago than now. So
I'm very happy to be part of this fantastic event.
And this is, as I said, legendary event with a huge,
(01:33):
huge history. This year we are having fourteenth edition of
Women in a Group Business. So yeah, it's been here
for a while.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So you're having an event, it's next month, is it?
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Not?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
The women?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
This is a seminar or a summit maybe is a
better way of placing here September twenty second to twenty
fourth down in Orlando. So why first of all the
need for this organization.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And then why the need for the annual convention.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
We do believe that in your business, for very long time,
have been considered to be like a male you know,
mostly male business. But we have seen for the last
ten years that we have this generation these you know,
so many amazing women, so many bright business leaders, female leaders,
and we do believe that it's important for all of
(02:27):
us to gather together one time in a year and
just to celebrate our achievements and to support each other.
And it's not just a networking event or professional development event.
It's a really hardcore market data market inside event. So
it's about equipping women with the market data, but also
creating the opportunity to network and to celebrate our achievements.
(02:50):
Because it's a really, it's a really it's not easy,
especially if you started like ten, twenty thirty years ago
being a female leader. It was a challenging then, and
it's important for us to meet, to support each other
and to share this inspiration.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So under the circumstances, I am very supportive of this
idea and the movement. I guess I'm wondering whether the
focus is on women ownership, women who work and run farms,
or both.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
We have very interesting audience. It's literally everyone across the
value chain. When we have been understanding trying to put
together the key segments of our delegates, doing this analysis,
I was impressed to see that we have like ten
percent of farm owners and rangers, twelve percent of top
(03:40):
management leaders in input segments. We have meat and poultry segments,
we have marketing, we have legal companies, we have literally
so many different segments represented different parts of value change
of every business. So it's really important that this event
is so diverse. It's like a small all American agriculture
(04:01):
meeting in one room and interest. In fact, we have
more than thirty five percent of C level or owners
of the business, so it's president's CEO or owners. So
I think this is impressive.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Lana Sankovska is here with us on the American Family
Farmer discussing women in agriculture. We continue in a matter
of moments, I'm Doug Stephan and she's not. She could
be Elizabeth Miller. However, as a matter of fact.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
She is. Elizabeth Miller.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Is one of the great reasons for going to top
loss dot com and engaging in the work of caltrin
getting that weight off the natural way.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Caltrin is different than everything else out there because it's
really good for you. It's actually drug free, stimulant free,
so it's good for you. We've been helping customers since
nineteen ninety seven. That's up for two hundred thousand happy customers,
so I know we've just helped people all over the
United States lose way. So if you go to toplass
dot com, you'll say the Caldron Selle right there. But
(04:58):
we do also, like Doug said, put together their custom packages.
Usually they're available by email or our Facebook page, or
you can call us and we'll put together something custom
for you that will also have some special pricing on there.
And then of course Doug has a promo code. If
you use the promo code Doug, that's going to say
you own shipping on all orders.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Elizabeth Miller from the folks at Caldertrin.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Thanks Elizabeth.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Back on the American Family Farmer. As we continue our
focus on women in Agribusiness and their summit which is
taking place in Orlando comes September the twenty second, twenty third,
and twenty fourth. This is the fourteenth time this has happened,
started back in twenty twelve. How long has Lana Senkovska
(05:46):
been involved. I guess that would be a good question
to ask her. I think in terms of clarification, I
know you've been involved for quite a while. You are
Ukrainian national. I guess maybe as an aside, there must
be a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Because of what's going on in Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
This has nothing the question has nothing to do with
women in agriculture just has to do with you as
a human being. What do you think when you look
at what's going on in your native land.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Well, it's very painful and for me spending like dedicating
all my life for like in a grid business. Knowing
how huge and powerful Ukraine's agri business, it's even harder
and more painful to see that it's also destroying this industry.
And I talk to many farmers in the United States
(06:32):
that do. Farmers are very resilient people because farmers have
nothing else but their land. So unfortunately, it's easier for
seity people to leave their apartment and go to another country.
But if you own the farm, it's like a connection
you can just cut like that. It's that that just
makes it even harder for people who live in village
in rural areas, for farmers, because they just can't live
(06:55):
their land. This is so painful to watch what's going
on and all the video when farmers where literally this
you know, bulletproof vest and trying to make these plantings
or harvesting, surrounded by people who have this armor to
shot Russian dronze. It's insane. But this is I think
(07:16):
one of the amazing stories for future generations and example
for all every business people across the world, because if
you're a farmer, it's not easy to make you leave
your land, make you leave your piece of land. You
will be staying there and trying to do what you
do no matter what. And I think all farmers across
the world showed in different moments that resilience and this
(07:39):
is something impressive, and this is something still very very
difficult to watch. And yes, this is something you know,
something I watch precisely every year, the crop forecast, the
harvesting a campaign and Ukraine still managed to export some
volumes of grains even now through the border with poland
(07:59):
not much through the ports because of what's going on.
But it's I think the whole This situation once again
shows that people in general are like resilient, and farmers
and a group business is a very resilient business because
even if everything against you, if you have a will
and if you dedicated to what you're doing, you will
keep on going.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Women in Agribusiness our focus Women in ag dot com
is the website where you can find out more information
about what's going on and especially a focus on the
women in agribusiness. Summer taking place in Orlando September the
twenty second, twenty third, and twenty fourth. Let me ask
you something that may be considered somewhat controversial. I noticed
(08:43):
as most groups like yours need sponsorships and you're invite
in people who are obviously in the ag business. Do
you get con do you get pushback? I was gonna
say conflict, but pushback from people who realize that Smithfield,
one of your corporate members, is a Chinese owned company
and creating a lot of concern among a lot of
(09:04):
American farmers and a lot of people who purchased the products.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
And I mean, I'm asking.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
The question because I think it's a legitimate question. Do
you have to do people know that? Do they confront it?
Do you have thoughts about it? I guess just underscoring
the connection that seems to be somewhat controversial.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well, we didn't have any problems and any feedback or
any like you know, comments on their behalf. And yes
we're in commercial events, but also we have several amazing
social impact initiatives, including students scholarships. So this which makes
our event a little bit different at all these commercial
events because for example, for all these years, we all
(09:51):
together have this students scholarship for more than one point
three million dollars. So every year we selected group of students.
It's like a company. It's we got about seventy applications
this year and we select about twenty five students. So
we pay for the students accommodation. We have a special
(10:12):
we create a special program for them, and I think
it's an amazing start for young female professional when you
know nothing in the business, got this support, being able
to meet with these amazing women. Also, we pair them
to some female like a mentorship program. So I think
our event is not just a commercial event. It has
(10:33):
a lot of angles of social impact and making it
so unique and different. And talking about sponsors, yeah, yeah,
we have something.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I'm going to say, you'll be congratulated on doing that
because a lot of I think what we're finding, I
think around the country. I know I find it my
neck of the woods. Women are interested. Actually more young
women are interested in getting into agribusiness, into farming than men,
and it's kind of created a circumstance where there isn't
(11:02):
there hasn't been any leadership. That was one of the
reasons I wanted to have you on this program so
you could tell a story, so parents of youngsters who
are on the farm can pass this along, or people
living in rural America who are looking to get into
farming or back into farming. This is a way for
you to find a door that is open, that has
(11:22):
lots of help.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
From people like you.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
And I think that's you should pass yourself on the
back for that.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, let me comment my observation when we have been
attand in different trade shows this year to promote women
in ad we have these families of farmers coming to
us with young girls and father who is a farmer,
who say, okay, she's my daughter and she will be
next in my farm because she likes it, she wants
to do it, and I have some too, But my son,
he's not interested. So you know, we live in this
(11:50):
interested time that now it's not about a gender which
defies who will be the next farmer. It's about who
really likes it and who has a character agreed and
who really enjoys being a farmer. Because it's not for everyone.
It's hard. It's a very difficult job. You know.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I'm going to tell you a quick story. I'm a
dairy guy.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I raise Jersey replacement heifers on my farm and I
have a bovine sanctuary, and I do a lot to
support the Jersey brand, if you will. And I went
to a farm in upstate New York to buy some
heifers last year, and there was a husband and wife
team that was running this dairy. They had about one
(12:31):
hundred and eighty or ninety cows, a very beautiful herd, certainly.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Well managed, if you will.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
The genetics were fabulous, And so I started talking to
the husband and wife and asked about their relationship and
where The gentleman who ran the farm has two or
three children that are working on the farm, and he
said that The wife told me they weren't her children,
they were his first wife's children. And the wife didn't
(13:01):
want to stay on the farm, didn't like it too
much work, so she divorced her husband. Well, the lady
that he married found him on a farmer's only website.
She wanted to live on the farm. She grew up
on a farm and then she left the farm, but
she wanted to be back on the farm. She wanted
to find herself a farmer, and so when she came
(13:23):
in she kind of took over. That's the reason I'm
telling you the story. She was milking, but she was
happy to tell me about her job taking care of
the books and overseeing genetics and stuff along with the children.
I thought it was kind of a cool story, so
I relate it to you. Yeah, for no other reason
that it's a good story. Hold on a second, I
have to pause for a moment with a word from
(13:45):
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Speaker 1 (15:38):
We're talking here this week in our interview segment with
Lana Sinkovska, who is the director, the portfolio director and
the Women of agric Business Community. They have their annual
convention down in Orlando twenty second of September, trying to
get young people to go down there. What do you
(15:59):
think is the biggest challenge and what do you find
by talking to the women that you are exposed to
when you are finding new members and when you talk
to the members have been.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
There for the fourteen years you've been in business. What
what do they tell you is the biggest.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Challenge I think for women in general, and we discussed
it many times that it's not always clear how to
build your career, how to you know to to to
move by this you know, stairs up, and we do
believe that many women have to be pioneers in this
industry and do some amazing things and became these industry
stars and opened these gates for the first time. In
(16:36):
some segments like Pameroon, she's amazing. She's a global famous
entrepreneur and opinion leader in biostimulants and biological inputs market.
But she was the first, and she created this amazing
halo of her personal brand and opened this door for
many other females. So I think that the most challenging
(16:58):
that for some segments of the business, many women have
to do something for the first time, build these careers
for the first time as females, and it's hard, it's challenging.
It has so many struggles that men don't see and
don't know. But it's still amazing. And I do believe
that if you're professional, if you're really good at what
you're doing, it doesn't matter who you are, what is
(17:20):
your gender, it doesn't matter if you are good. If
you are really professional, all doors will be open for you.
But sometimes you need a little bit more efforts on
different steps of your career. So I think the biggest
challenge is that many women is doing something in their
industries for the first time, and it's always a big
(17:42):
responsibility and big challenge.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Here's a question when it comes to women who are
already running farms in there paying attention.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I'm going to use one woman as an example. I'm
trying to remember her name. She is in her thirties.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
She inherited the family cherry farm in Washington State and
needed seventeen workers to harvest her crop, and ice came
in and raided her farm and took most of the
men and women who were working on the farm away
to deport them. As a result, she lost seventy percent
(18:18):
of her crop and has gone bankrupt. I wonder how
much discussion of that sort of thing will come up
this year.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yes, we definitely will be covering a lot of these
pressing topics, including what is going on on labor market,
including tariffs, including AI like, so many big changes happening
in twenty twenty five, and it's you know, of course,
it's impacting agriculture a lot, and some conversations will be
more painful than others. So we do have some panels
(18:49):
panel discussion because we think that for some topics, like
all the policy updates and tariffs and everything what's going
on what you mentioned, it's important to hear the voice
of different segments of agriculture and some industry associations because
it's important that the industry speak up and shout about
this problem and highlight that it is super important to
(19:13):
highlight that hybribusiness needs all the support, that it's not
easy to run the farm even in the good year,
and if you have some extra layers of challenges is
getting sometimes unbearable.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Well, I think you've done a great job in putting
all of this together and as a spokesperson for women
in Agribusiness, continued success to you, especially when it comes
to this event in September. Going to the website is
probably a good idea for many of you who are
interested in pursuing the information, perhaps going to this event
Women in egg dot com, Women inagg dot com. Thanks
(19:48):
to Lana Sinkovska. This program was produced above kasound and
recording Please vi is abobksound dot com. The American Family
Farmer podcast, sponsored in part by Caldron, which is the
safe way for you to lose weight and keep it off.
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