You Grow, Girl!

This series is comprised of contributed pieces from female farmers around the globe – from the northern reaches of Canada, to the heartland of the U.S., to the western coast of Africa, to the rolling hills of France and beyond. The series aims to amplify the voice of female farmers who play vital roles in helping farms thrive. These amazing women nurture their families and fields. Here, they share their unique perspectives on food, family and farming. We hope that you enjoy their stories as much as we have enjoyed unearthing them.

Videos from this campaign

Content from this campaign

Diversity & Inclusion

Northwestern Minnesota Farm Girl Finds Role at General Mills To Address Global Food and Agriculture Challenges
Meredith Kruger Kos is an Impact Analyst for the General Mills Foundation and the latest feature in our ‘You Grow, Girl!’ series, which aims to amplify the voices of female farmers around the world.

Diversity & Inclusion

A Love of Farming and a Passion for Research
Koryne Carlson puts to work both her passion for farming and agricultural degree in Agronomy in her role as an Oat Agronomy Technician at our Oat Breeding and Agronomy Research Lab in Brookings, South Dakota.

Diversity & Inclusion

Family Farming Legacy From South Africa to Canada
Ray Lourens grew up on a farm in South Africa before relocating with her family to a remote farming community in Saskatchewan, Canada. Her family’s operation was recently selected to be a part of our Regenerative Agriculture Oat Pilot program.

Diversity & Inclusion

A Pet Pig and a Lifetime of Lessons on the Farm
Learn how Ramona Kastenbauer, who grew up on a farm in rural central Minnesota, today uses life lessons she learned on the farm in her role as administrative services coordinator at General Mills in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Diversity & Inclusion

From Milking Cows to Research
For this blog post, we reached out to Franciele Caixeta, who puts her agricultural knowledge growing up on a dairy farm to work as a research and development commodities coordinator at our Cambará, Brazil, plant where our Yoki brand of popcorn, tea, snack food and side dishes are produced.

Environment

Montana Teen Digs Healthy Soil
Kate Indreland from Big Timber, Montana, is featured in this post. She was a finalist in our inaugural General Mills Feeding Better Futures Scholars Program, which encourages youth ages 13-21 to nominate their in-action solution or idea that tackles one of the following topics: sustainable agriculture, food waste reduction and hunger relief. As a finalist, Indreland won $10,000 to further her soil health work. I had a chance to connect with her to see what she’s been up to since last summer.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Fueling Full Lives in North Minneapolis
Fresh fruits and vegetables aren’t abundant at everyone’s table: In many parts of the country, there are wide disparities when it comes to accessing nutritious food.

In the greater Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), this is a challenge in North Minneapolis, a diverse, urban community.

Responsible Production & Consumption

How the Diestel Family Does Thanksgiving
Editor’s note: This is the latest post in our “You Grow, Girl!” series highlighting female farmers – from the northern reaches of Canada to the heartland of the U.S. From the western coast of Africa to the rolling hills of France and beyond. The series amplifies the voices of female farmers, who play vital roles in agriculture worldwide.

Education

FFA Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders
When Leslie Turner was growing up on a cattle farm in Kansas, getting up at 5:30 a.m. to do her chores, she turned to one of the largest youth leadership organizations in the world to give her a valuable experience that would help shape her life and career.

Responsible Production & Consumption

Bring Back the Native Bees
A 2007 study examined agriculture data from 200 countries and found that fruit, vegetable, or seed production from 87 of the leading global food crops is dependent upon animal pollination—more than 75 percent.

When the scientists looked at global food production from these crops, they found that 35 percent of the world’s food production comes from crops that depend on pollinators.

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