We're sorry. An error has occurred
Please cancel or retry.
Sexuality and small-scale farmers

Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Couldn't load pickup availability
- Format:
-
06 October 2025

In this chapter, the authors invite gender in agriculture scholars and practitioners to consider the smallholder farmers who are gender minorities but do not fit into the category of “woman.” By deconstructing gender and sex, researchers and practicians are positioned to attend to a more holistic form of gender and, as such, disassemble the structures that seek to dominate all gender minorities. Through re-examining the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, we reflect on how heteronormativity affects smallholder farmers and call for scholars and practitioners to investigate the pernicious ways in which heteronormativity manifests in research, policy, and practice. Second, by reviewing queer farmers’ research—primarily conducted in industrialized nations—and using a case study of farming in Switzerland, this chapter demonstrates that assumptions about queer equity and progress cannot be assumed based on geographic location. Finally, the chapter asks what sexuality-sensitive, -informed, -transformative approaches, policies and research entail.

TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Agriculture / Sustainable Agriculture, Smallholdings, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Agriculture / Animal Husbandry, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Agriculture / Agronomy / Crop Science, Sustainable agriculture, Animal husbandry, Agronomy and crop production, Agricultural science

- 1 Introduction
- 2 Reflecting on the modern/colonial gender system
- 3 Queer farmers: existing research
- 4 Future trends
- 5 Conclusion
- 6 Where to look for further information
- 7 References