Kellie Kennedy Shares Women’s Agricultural Involvement to Brownville Audience

Women have impacted agriculture more than 10,000 years, Kellie Kennedy related Saturday morning, Sept. 12 in Brownville.
“We’ve never really thought about their effort to provide food to all of us,” she noted. The Brownville Fine Arts Association celebrated the International Year of the Woman Farmer at Schoolhouse Art Gallery.
The United States took the lead in the observance, which was designated in 2024 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. “I think that is great,” Kennedy stated.
“Women have been the heart of agriculture. We need to be educated to provide food the safest and most efficient way possible. Agriculture sustains our life. There are many careers in agriculture. Agriculture is not just soil. It’s fishing, lumber and forests. It impacts what we eat and build, and the ingredients of what we use in our day to day life,” she continued.
Women have struggled to play a role in agriculture, Kennedy said, noting 33 percent of women in the Cornhusker State are involved in it.
“We’re trying to produce value from the land and feed the world,” she explained.
Under the Homestead Act, Mary Meyer showed up in Brownville to secure her 160 acres in the area Daniel Freeman, the first homesteader, did so in Gage County. Homesteaders had to build, live five years on the land, raise crops, plant trees and raise livestock
During World Wars I and II, women were involved on the farm, Kennedy said.
The Women’s Land Army was a civilian organization created to place women on farms to grow food and replace men who joined the military. The Emergency Farm Labor Program was established in 1943 to provide labor on farm to raise food for everyone as well as the war effort, she related. There were 2.5 million persons involved from 1943 to 1945. More than 20 million victory gardens were planted during World War II, Kennedy stated.
She shared particulars on individuals who have had an influence on agriculture.
All have been impacted by the work of Dr. Mary Engle Pennington, whom Kennedy named the “Ice Woman.” Pennington  was the Food and Drug Administration’s first female lab chief following the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. Kennedy noted Pennington developed standards for storage of perishable foods, safe chicken processing and procedures to avoid contamination in milk.
Dr. Temple Grandin was a proponent of the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter. She is the author of more than 60 scientific papers on animal behavior. Kennedy related Grandin was a leading advocate on the struggles of the autistic world.
“She was a trailblazer in the disorder she embraces,” she continued.
Grandin developed the hug machine, a therapeutic device designed to calm hypersensitive persons, usually autistic individuals.
Kennedy encouraged researching Grandin and what she has achieved.
Currently a professor at Colorado State University, Grandin was the subject of a 2024 feature length documentary and a 2010 biographical movie where she was portrayed by Claire Danes.
In Nebraska, women have been involved in specialty farming, including general produce and farmers markets, Kennedy noted. She continued many have been doing social media explaining their farming story.
A volunteer with the Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation, Kennedy teaches the public where their food, fuel and fiber comes from. She is also active with Agriculture in the Classroom, supplying teachers with curriculum to use in classroom settings. Kennedy also is involved with Agriculture Pen Pals, sharing agriculture and agribusiness connections.
She encouraged everyone to be attentive to what is happening in Nebraska agriculture.
“It’s constantly changing,” Kennedy concluded.