Cultivating Change (USA)

The women in Cultivating Change work in the far-flung cities of Atlanta, Santa Cruz, Union Pier, San Francisco, Chicago, and Oakland, yet they share a passion for changing the American way of agriculture and making fresh healthy food accessible to their neighbors, their families and themselves. Two women work the land on a small organic farm outside Santa Cruz, California, providing as many as 100 families with abundantly fresh produce throughout the year. A teenage girl in Union Pier, Michigan plants a new crop of tomatoes that she will sell at the farmers market in the nearest big city. And in San Francisco, a diverse group of women work in their own backyards, growing nutritious salad greens for themselves and their lucky families.

Some of the women in this series cultivate their backyards as a way to reduce their weekly store-bought food expenditures. Others grow food to sell within their community, as a profitable, viable business. Another economic benefit is that these women have improved their health and lowered their medical expenses as a result of eating, sharing or selling fresh food that they have grown themselves. As our world changes more quickly than ever, the women pictured here have slowed down enough to cultivate change, starting with the next young seedling.