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Listen here: https://www.dlg.org/mediacenter/dlg-podcast/agrar/dlg-podcast-spezial-female-agri-fellows-she-feeds-the-world

Women grow food, sustain families, hold agricultural knowledge, and help communities navigate drought, conflict, economic instability, and a changing climate. Yet around the world, women farmers continue to face significant barriers to land, financing, education, markets, technology, and decision-making.

What could change if women had the resources, relationships, and power to lead?

That question is at the heart of a new DLG *Female Agri Fellows* podcast conversation with **Mary Johnson, Founder and CEO of Regenerative Farms**.

In the episode, **“She Feeds the World: How Mary Johnson (supports grassroots partners) to Fight Famine and Gender Oppression,”** DLG hosts Jana Sondermann and Nathalie Joest speak with Mary about regenerative agriculture, climate resilience, women’s leadership, and the lessons she has gathered through more than three decades of work with farmers and rural communities.)

## Regeneration is about more than farming practices

For Mary, regenerative agriculture has never been simply a collection of techniques for improving soil.

It begins with trust filled right relationships.

Healthy soils, diverse farms, thriving ecosystems, nutritious food, viable rural livelihoods, and strong communities are interconnected. Regeneration therefore requires us to ask not only *how food is grown*, but also:

Who has access to land and resources?
Who has the opportunity to build a livelihood from agriculture?
Whose knowledge is valued?
Who participates in decisions?
And who benefits when agricultural systems become more productive?

Those questions have shaped the work of Regenerative Farms and the development of its **Regeneration Hub model created by its global network of grassroots leaders and agroecological farming communities**.

Rather than approaching communities with a predetermined solution, the model is designed to strengthen locally led organizations and farmer networks. Hubs can bring together nurseries, farmer training, regenerative production, locally appropriate technologies, processing, market development, peer-to-peer learning, and support for women’s leadership.

The goal is not simply to deliver a project.

It is to help communities build the knowledge, infrastructure, relationships, and economic opportunities needed to continue regenerating their food systems long after a particular grant has ended.

## Why women are central to food-system resilience

One of the central themes of the DLG conversation is the extraordinary—and frequently undervalued—role women play in agriculture.

Women are often responsible not only for producing food but also for feeding families, maintaining seed and crop knowledge, managing household nutrition, caring for children, and sustaining communities during periods of crisis.

Yet the people carrying much of that responsibility often have the least access to the resources that determine agricultural success.

That is why supporting women farmers cannot be treated as a secondary “gender component” of agricultural development.

It is a food-security strategy.

It is a climate-resilience strategy.

And it is an investment in the long-term strength of rural communities.

Across its partnerships, Regenerative Farms works to put that principle into practice—supporting locally led organizations as they strengthen women farmers, restore degraded ecosystems, develop regenerative enterprises, improve food and nutrition security, and build networks through which communities can learn from one another.

## From individual projects to a global community of practice

Mary also discusses what she has learned through decades of working alongside farmers and agricultural leaders in very different landscapes and cultures.

While each community is unique, many of the challenges are remarkably similar: degraded land, climate uncertainty, limited capital, weak market access, and agricultural systems that frequently undervalue the people caring for both families and ecosystems.

But the solutions do not need to travel in only one direction.

A farmer organization in Haiti can have something to teach a pastoralist network in Kenya. An Indigenous organization in the Philippines can offer lessons relevant to restoration work elsewhere. Farmers experimenting with regenerative systems in Hawaiʻi or Appalachia can contribute knowledge to a much larger global conversation.

Regenerative Farms seeks to help create those connections.

Instead of positioning one organization as the source of expertise, we believe some of the most powerful innovation happens when farmers, community leaders, Indigenous leaders, women’s organizations, researchers, businesses, and funders are able to learn from one another as peers.

## What do we want the next generation to inherit?

The conversation ultimately looks forward.

What kind of agricultural system are we building for the next generation?

One in which farmers remain vulnerable to increasingly unpredictable conditions and communities depend on outside interventions?

Or one in which healthy ecosystems, local knowledge, diversified livelihoods, women’s leadership, and strong farmer organizations create the foundation for resilience?

For Regenerative Farms, regeneration means choosing the second path—and recognizing that the people closest to the land must be among those leading the way.

We are grateful to **DLG and the Female Agri Fellows initiative** for creating space for this conversation and for elevating the voices of women working to transform agriculture around the world.

### Listen to the conversation

Listen to **“She Feeds the World: How Mary Johnson Fights Famine and Gender Oppression”** on the DLG *Female Agri Fellows* podcast.

**[Listen to the full DLG podcast →]**

And follow Regenerative Farms as we continue working alongside women farmers, Indigenous leaders, and locally led organizations to regenerate landscapes, strengthen livelihoods, and build more resilient food systems.

Listen here: https://www.dlg.org/mediacenter/dlg-podcast/agrar/dlg-podcast-spezial-female-agri-fellows-she-feeds-the-world

### Regenerative Farms founder Mary Johnson joins DLG’s *Female Agri Fellows* podcast to discuss why investing in women farmers, restoring ecosystems, and strengthening locally led agricultural systems must go hand in hand.