PARTING THE ‘GRASS CEILING’: FEMALE FARMERS IN JAPAN
Atsue Durrant spent most of her career as an office worker, but she always felt something was missing. She was a multi-discipline artist and used photography as her form of self-expression. But it wasn’t until she quit her job to indulge her creative side, with the support of her husband Cameron Durrant, 41, that she discovered her new calling. She set out to empower female farmers in the area to start a farm in Mizuho in western Tokyo, just outside of the Yokota US Air Base.
Having a partner to encourage and support her, Atsue felt she could finally spread her wings and try something new. Although she is considered a “hobby” farmer, she feels right at home.
“When I was younger, I wanted to farm but I wasn’t good enough,” Atsue, 39, explains in English during a recent interview with Kyodo News. She had a small garden at her parents’ home in Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture, where she used to try to grow vegetables but she didn’t have her green thumb quite yet.
“I would try, but they would always die,” she says with a chuckle.
Needing a change from the everyday grind of office work, she decided to explore other professions shortly after marrying her husband in 2011. She felt that she needed to get closer to nature and reconnect with the curiosity she once had in her family’s garden.
“I quit office work and visited some single female farmers in Japan to see what it would be like being a farmer. I thought, ‘I think I can do it!’”
Atsue knew that the community of farmers she was preparing to join was predominantly male but she became confident because of the presence of a strong group of female farmers in her area.
After visiting female farmers around the country in 2015, she worked for two years at Kondo Farm in Mizuho. She learned how to grow green onions in the winter to spring months and tomatoes in the summer. Her husband continued working as an English teacher while she was working at the farm.
Atsue is a member of the “Women Who Farm” project, which the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries organised to connect female farmers from around Japan.
The project’s website says its members believe there can be an “organic farming revolution” and that they will work together to become the “strong women of sustainable agriculture”. They organise events as well as write articles about their farming experiences.
“I’ve never been told that I can’t [be a farmer] because I am a female,” says Atsue. “Some female farmers feel it is harder to be a female and there are some land owners who don’t want to rent to females. I was aware that it happens but I feel a lot of people want to see me succeed.
“I feel like people cheer for me. Our farm is in a very equal place and people just see me as a farmer.”
The couple’s Base Side Farm — four rented plots measuring 330 square metres each outside Yokota Air Base — is one of the largest farms surrounding the base perimeter. Atsue uses social media to communicate with customers both on the base and in the local area.
Commercial farmers, of course, have bigger plots than hobby farmers. For them, it is a way of life, although the Durrants’ plot is nothing to sneeze at.
According to a government study, professional women farmers accounted for 43% of full-time agricultural workers in Japan in 2015.
Atsue learned how to speak English after travelling abroad and her husband is an expat from Australia.
To improve relations between the local community and the US base personnel, Atsue allows active-duty military members from the base to occasionally help out on the farm.
Customers are given the opportunity to dig up their own peanuts and take them home. The farm sells pesticide-free dried corn, which can be used as a healthy alternative to store bought popcorn.
Atsue also sells produce at a local farmers’ market called Fresh House, located minutes away from their farm.
Although the Base Side Farm has only been around for a little less than a year, Atsue believes it has already had an impact on the military base community, whose members often seek off-base grocery items at prices cheaper than those shipped from abroad and sold at the commissary.
One of Atsue’s customers from the military base says, “[Atsue] grows amazing veggies that are pesticide-free. I love going to pick them up knowing they’ve just been picked. She has even sent me recipe ideas for veggies I’m unfamiliar with.”
Atsue took a leap of faith in order to become a farmer and get away from typical office work. With the ageing farming population in Japan, she is hopeful that more women will follow in her footsteps to get closer to nature and express themselves through farm work.
She still loves photography and posts photos of vegetables and her cooking creations on her Instagram page.
“Farming is self-expression. It’s not just produce, it’s showing a bit of you,” she says.
Kyodo News Service
“Farming is selfexpression. It’s not just produce, it’s showing a bit of you”
ATSUE DURRANT