Mar 30, 2023
Editor’s Note: The following list details some of the many women leading the charge in the agricultural industry. As there are numerous women in agriculture around the world specializing in technology, operations, business development, and more, this list is not exhaustive but rather meant to illustrate the variety of ways in which women are creatively solving the world’s food crisis.
Written by: Sarah Jordan and Dorothy Braun
March 30, 2023
It is widely accepted that there is a gender gap in agriculture, particularly related to opportunities, pay, and productivity, among other factors. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), “Closing the gender gap in agriculture would generate significant gains for the agriculture sector and for society.” One important part of supporting women in agriculture is uplifting their voices and recognizing their achievements.
Here are eleven remarkable women that are leading the future of agriculture around the world.
Jasmine is the founder and CEO of Goodr, a technology-driven sustainable food waste management company with the mission to “feed more, waste less.” In addition to mitigating food waste, Jasmine continues to work to feed her community and beyond, motivated to help people understand that “hunger is not a question of scarcity,” as outlined in her 2017 TEDx Talk. Her work provides innovative hunger relief services such as popup grocery markets, meal delivery, student snack packs, and in-neighborhood food pantries.
With extensive expertise across global agriculture sectors, Ponsi is currently CEO at Inari, a leading tech platform in the seed industry. By using AI and their unique proprietary genetic design software, they endeavor to transform the global food system towards health and sustainability. Their unique, ambitious, collaborative approach takes inspiration from nature's complexity to “building better seeds.” Ponsi brings years of leadership and management skills to the team from her prior time at Syngenta, an agricultural company aiming to improve upon innovative crop solutions through sustainability, quality, and safety.
Program Director at NASA Harvest, NASA’s Food Security and Agriculture Program, Inbal spearheads their mission to utilize satellite observations of Earth to benefit food security, agriculture, and human and environmental resilience alike in the US and worldwide. Working with an array of multidisciplinary and multisectoral scientists, researchers, and agricultural stakeholders, Inbal leads NASA Harvest’s vision towards informed agricultural decisions.
As VP Of Product Management at CIBO, Jenette is an entrepreneurial scientist and agricultural technology innovator on a mission to utilize advanced digital technologies to reduce and reverse the climate impact of farming. Experienced in translating and delivering novel IP into real world solutions, Jenette has applied her technology to deliver critical soil information and improve precision management to agricultural communities throughout the Americas. Jenette recognizes that the complex challenges facing agriculture today can only be solved through the collaboration and integration of many diverse stakeholders.
Vipula joined the Research & Development team at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in September 2012 as a Senior Program Officer. She currently leads the Discovery Portfolio linking upstream, breakthrough science to application in Agricultural Development, which aligns with her longstanding interest in the convergence of basic science, technology and agricultural production. Prior to joining the foundation, Vipula spent more than a decade at Dow AgroSciences, where she led numerous research programs that delivered novel gene discovery and breakthrough genome-modification technology development for trait development.
As co-founder and CEO of NuCicer, Kathryn brings her multidisciplinary leadership expertise to her passion for sustainable solutions to reducing our global environmental footprint. NuCicer’s technology is a result of decades of research towards developing a more protein-rich chickpea without genetic modification, ultimately transforming the plant-protein industry.
As founder and CEO of Bee Downtown, Leigh-Kathryn aims to teach valuable leadership skills through understanding the efficiency of honeybees. Bee Downton installs and maintains beehives on corporate campuses and leans on the concepts in biomimicry to facilitate employee engagement and leadership development programming for influential corporations nationwide. Maintaining local beehives also contributes to the health of the surrounding environment. A win-win all around!
As the founder of Change Food for Good: The Urban Wild, Samia works to make AgTech more accessible to food-insecure communities. Her NYC-based nonprofit aims to empower vulnerable communities to grow their own food and eventually gain food security. She hopes to support a new generation of urban farmers who can utilize tech-enabled agriculture to meet the needs of their communities. Lemfadli and her team have bold goals for the coming years, and they are definitely making a positive impact on their community.
Having lifelong experience in various parts of the food industry, Julia has long developed her calling to make delicious food accessible to all while working to heal the planet. Driven by a mission to tackle climate change through food brands, Julia is the founder and CEO of Planet FWD. Julia’s organization strives to leverage their proprietary software to encourage sustainability and carbon-neutrality in products across the market. Currently, Planet FWD aids food, fashion, beauty and personal care brands take climate action and reach their climate goals.
Barbara is the CEO and founder of Interstellar Lab. Self-taught in engineering and architecture, she aims to bring agriculture into space, allowing us to grow food on other planets. Interstellar Lab produces agricultural modules that can be used on Earth or in space, and develops sustainable crop cultivation methods based in space exploration technology design.
Renée is The Nature Conservancy’s Director of Agriculture Innovation. She manages TNC’s investments in early-stage ag companies that will scale regenerative ag production practices. Prior to TNC, Renée spent 10 years at John Deere, including several years based in Beijing, where she worked across corporate functions & geographies to build global product strategies, design & manufacture equipment, and marketing & sales. Post-Deere, Renée started Banyan Innovation Group - advising growth-stage agriculture start-ups & investors.