Krysta Harden
Agriculture Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden has established a Women in Agriculture Mentoring Network.

The initiative has an email address agwomenlead@usda.gov, at which women are invited “to share your suggestions, stories and other snippets on how we can build a new generation of women leaders in agriculture,” Harden wrote in a blog on the USDA website.

Harden noted that, last fall, “I held a White House discussion with farmers, agribusiness, academics and youth leaders about the opportunities that exist to help advance women in agriculture to leadership positions. Since that meeting, the response has been overwhelming. Women from all walks of life and every sector of the agriculture supply chain are empowering one another, and they’re sharing beautiful photographs and touching stories about how they’ve done it.”

She also said that, in her travels around the country, young women stop her and tell her they are looking for mentorship.

Harden said she is “truly excited by the passion and confidence I continue to see in women in agriculture across the country,” but she believes that “to be a woman in agriculture is to face a unique set of challenges.”

Harden also invited women to share their stories using the hashtag #womeninag on social media.