‘We’re stewards of our land’: the rise of female farmers

Nearly one in five farmers are women, with the number rising all the time. We ask four of them about their lives, work and a year of challenges

On 23 March, the night lockdown was announced, Catherine St Germans was on a Zoom call with farmers, policymakers and activists. There was a sense of foreboding, as they became aware that lockdown would have a catastrophic effect on UK farms.

Using nothing more complicated than Google Sheets and WhatsApp, St Germans and a team of volunteers created Farms To Feed Us, a document listing farms by postcode and what they sold. The file could be easily shared, or signed up to by those who had food to sell. The database launched on 25 March, within an hour or so it was on the Guardian’s Covid live blog, and engagement was immediate.