International Year of the Woman Farmer: Zandra

5 hours ago
3 min read

Zandra Zalucky is the founder of Cultivating Opportunities, and a member of Elmgrove Farmers' Collective at Elmgrove Farm. She does a bit of everything! Planning, marketing, distribution... but her favourite is always the growing part.

Over these years, she has learned a lot, and two of the most important lessons is the value of diversity for a thriving ecosystem, and the importance in not forcing nature. We must work with nature in a co-creation process. She discovered a resonance with the farming lifestyle during an internship with Daniel Hoffmann of The Cutting Veg. Her and her twin sister - Halyna - don’t use machinery, instead focusing on process over productivity. They rely on hand tools because they want to be as gentle with the soil as possible, ensuring life and vitality is maintained and enhanced with every passing year. She is quick to say that Nature is her teacher!

Outside of her farming pursuits, Zandra loves running, biking, hiking... anything that gets her body in motion in the natural world. She’s been in a long recovery process from an injury at the moment, so while these things aren't available at the moment, she’s also energized by spiritual development pursuits. Anything that gets her out of her head and connected with something greater, to be of better service to the whole.

Why does she do this work? Because the work is deeply satisfying. It feels really good to be working outside in beautiful natural surroundings, connecting meaningfully with others, and tending gently to the soil to grow nourishing food.

What does your identity as woman farmer mean to you?

That I am a woman who farms! And I take my sun hat off to all my farming sisters around the world.

Do you think the farming/agricultural industry is designed to favour men? And why?

I think the agricultural industry is no different than every other industry in our current mainstream societal paradigm, in that it is designed to favour the masculine way of doing things, i.e. 'Go big or go home.' Growing on a large scale, as quickly as possible, to make as much money as possible. Whereas, I believe, the feminine approach to farming is to 'Take small steps with great care.' Usually small-scale, human-powered, with a greater value placed on the connection and care of the land and surrounding community. I would like to point out- some men follow the feminine approach and some women follow the masculine approach, so this is not gender-based as much as it is culture-based.

What advice would you give a younger version of yourself?…a young woman entering the industry?

Not to feel timid about doing things your own way. You're going to be told all the ways you can do things on a bigger scale, do them faster, make more money... and if these are your end goals- Go for it! But if your goals are different... Honour not only your vision, but your process. While farming is challenging work on many fronts, you have to love how you're doing it, in order to stick with it through the hard times.

Why is farming important to you?

How is it not important to everyone?! Do you eat? Enough said. Physical nourishment aside... As I've touched on earlier, farming is also emotionally and spiritually nourishing for me. Emotionally, in that I get to connect every day with people I love, and spiritually because I feel so connected to nature and the natural cycles and rhythms that we are a part of.

What do you wish the average person understood about what it means to be a woman involved in agriculture and farming?

That although many of us have chosen to take a smaller-scale approach to farming... by focusing more on working with nature than against it, I believe we are nonetheless making an invaluable contribution to feeding & healing the planet.

A 2023 survey from Farm Management Canada found that many women struggle with identifying themselves as a farmer (over 25% chose somewhat or strongly disagree). Why do you think this is, and do you identify as a farmer?

According to the definition of a farmer- I'm a farmer. But yes, I do struggle with calling myself a farmer, because when people think of farming (here in the West at least), they think of huge acreage and large machines... And men. But in the East, it's the women who tend to the fields. And these women work together on smaller plots. I think many women here resonate more with that approach. And again, I do feel that small-scale, community-based farming is part of the solution to the world's problems.