After a summer of fire and flood, climate change is ripe on all of our minds. While we all feel the effects, our recent ClimateLab™ initiative is dedicated to prioritizing women farmers, a demographic critically dependent on the natural resources most threatened by climate change, and all too often, are the most vulnerable to its impacts.
In the majority of the world, feeding a family requires growing your own food, and this responsibility often falls on women. For female farmers, climate change translates to crop failure, food insecurity, and personal health risks due to high temperatures. Despite the challenges, women remain the most powerful catalysts of change in their community.
As a company, we have put ethics first since our inception. We believe it is our responsibility to address the different challenges for gender equality in the context of a changing climate. Jacobs Farm del Cabo is female co-founded and powered by the minds of women company-wide. Our ClimateLab™ is no exception. We are starting small, guided by big goals to make a difference for women farmers in our communities. Our current efforts are women-led and created and include the following:
Empowerment and inclusion of women in strategic decision making. Many women farmers have the tools to fix climate change, but lack the platform needed to do so. If we meet the goals of our initiatives in empowerment and inclusion, we will see 50% of Jacobs Farm del Cabo leadership, from farm to corporate, be women-led.
The addition of comfortable breastfeeding rooms that provide women with privacy, a pump, and a refrigerator for storage. Women’s ability to provide both income and food for their children should never exist in conflict. Our first site was thoughtfully curated (see photo below), and will be replicated across other farms with working mothers. Our efforts on behalf of mothers and children also include reproductive health support and paternity leave training.
Partnering with a local Baja shelter (CAVIM) for survivors of domestic violence. Together, we are establishing an employment pipeline where survivors in need of jobs can easily find work within our del Cabo farming cooperative, facilitating organic produce donations, and exploring the installation of an urban farming garden for the organization’s women and children.
Our ClimateLab™ champions leading these initiatives, Vanessa Martiñon and Maricela Adrian, are continuing to receive training on gender equity and climate change to be the best stewards of change and support for our farms. We’re proud of the work they are doing and look forward to sharing more.