Metro Atlanta's female farming community is growing

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. - Though, in the US, farming is a male-dominated field, there are organizations that aim to bring more people with limited resources--especially rural minority women-- into the fold.

If it's true we reap what we sow, it's no wonder so many women farmers are convinced: health and wealth grow from the ground up.

"I never thought I'd be farming. I was a city girl. I didn't want to be bothered with sun, bugs, outdoors and here we are," two-time cancer survivor and community gardener turned full-time farmer Niya Brown Matthews said.

She gave FOX5 a tour of her Douglasville farm. Brown Matthews doesn't need a grocery store to make an omelet on a simple Saturday morning.

Everything she needs is in her own backyard. 

Niya Brown Matthews takes FOX 5 on a tour of her Douglasville farm. (FOX 5)

Creating the grounds can be an investment, but she says what she's gotten in return from that backyard farm has paid for itself. It saves her family $600 or more in monthly groceries. Her farm has also fed the neighborhood through farmers' markets and nearby churches.

"It creates sustainability and self-sufficiency," she said.

One goal Niya Brown Matthews has in farming is to help people have a better relationship with food. (FOX 5)

Census data shows for centuries in the farming industry, most of the "wealth" has gone to white men, with women of color in rural communities finding themselves with less access to fresh foods. 

Lately, the industry as a whole has taken several hits. You've likely seen the prices reflected when you shop for groceries.

Niya Brown Matthews decided she was going to turn her experience as a community gardener into a full-time career. (FOX 5)

In response to 2022's census, the US Secretary of Agriculture released a statement saying: 

"A combination of trade wars, the pandemic and policies that furthered a 'get big or get out' mentality pushed more people *out of farming in the five years since the last Census, more than in any other Census period this century. America, and especially our rural communities, cannot afford this trajectory toward larger, but fewer, farms."

"We're in Georgia, where the number one industry is agriculture and there are no farms in Atlanta. Yes, an hour out, there are farms and things in that nature, but not in Atlanta," Ashley McCoy said, reflecting on what she thought of Atlanta's agriculture scene before she started advocating for it.

Niya Brown Matthews, a two-time cancer survivor, says she saves more than $600 in groceries a month and is able to help feed her community. (FOX 5)

She created Agriculture Networks, a nonprofit organization that promotes under-resourced farmers. 

"We are working with small farmers transitioning them from gardeners to farmers, to gain profit," she said. "The USDA defines socially disadvantaged farmers, as women, AAPI, Hispanics, Blacks, everyone except traditional white male farmers."

Niya Brown Matthews says she was a city girl, but now everything she needs is in her backyard. (FOX 5)

She's expanded services to Georgia, where farmers like Matthews and others can utilize her wisdom and state programs.

"There's a Georgia extension program provided by UGA farmers in the form of grants," she said, while listing off several initiatives.

Both women say metro Atlanta is proof farming statistics are changing.

Niya Brown Matthews is buking a trend in the traditionally a male dominated field of farming. (FOX 5)

Forty-one percent of the country’s more than 3 million producers are women. 

Women in agriculture are slightly younger than their male counterparts and are more likely to live on the farms they operate.

Matthews' two-acre farm is just one aspect of her budding business. The other is in the community itself... both outdoors... and online.

Niya Brown Matthews created Agriculture Networks, a nonprofit organization that promotes under resourced farmers.  (FOX 5)

Hundreds of thousands of people keep up with the Twin Oaks Farm. On social media, Matthews shares tips on how to start your own community garden, information about her green thumb workshops and breaks down stereotypes about what a farmer's life entails. 

"My ultimate goal is to build a hub within our community, learn about sustainability and have a better relationship with food," she said.