Who Gets a Seat at the Table?

Who gets recognized for the work they do? Who gets invited into the conversation? And who has to fight for a seat at the table?

At a dinner hosted by American Farmland Trust and Stone Barns Center at Blue Hill in New York City, Dana DiPrima met organic grain farmer Mary-Howell Martens, a woman who had quietly rearranged the seating chart to make sure she wouldn't be overlooked in conversations about the farm she and her husband had spent decades building.

That encounter led Dana back to Letters to a Young Farmer: On Food, Farming, and Our Future, a collection of essays offering wisdom to the next generation of farmers.

With the average American farmer now over 58, the question of who will farm next is increasingly urgent. But Mary-Howell's letter raises a more fundamental question: What does it really mean to choose farming as a way of life, and are we making that choice possible for the next generation?

Drawing on Mary-Howell's remarkable farming history, the experiences of women participating in For Farmers Movement, and the timeless advice of poet Rainer Maria Rilke to "live the questions now," Dana explores the difference between doing meaningful work and being recognized for it.

It's a conversation about farming, certainly. But it's also about the lives we choose, the expertise we overlook, the power of encouragement, and why making room for others matters in every profession.

In this episode

• The dinner-party seating arrangement that inspired an unexpected friendship and a bigger conversation.
• Why American agriculture urgently needs a new generation of farmers.
• What Mary-Howell and Klaas Martens learned while transitioning more than 1,300 acres to organic production.
• The overlooked expertise of women in agriculture and what For Farmers Movement is learning from its applicants.
• How a simple Farmer Thank You postcard reminded a new farmer that her work mattered.

Episode Links

• Letters to a Young Farmer: On Food, Farming, and Our Future, published by Stone Barns Center (2017)
• Mary-Howell and Klaas Martens, Seneca Grain & Bean, organic farmers in New York's Finger Lakes region
• For Farmers Movement and its Farmer Thank You postcard program

Eat like it matters. Because it does.