As a cardiorespiratory therapist in an intensive care unit and later as a nutritionist, Pamela Schreiber saw many people with grave ailments. Working in rehabilitation, she helped long-term smokers, asthmatics, people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and postoperative cardiac surgery patients.

“I worked with people who hadn’t taken care of themselves their whole lives through smoking or poor diet,” she said.

After doing a lot of research, and with no previous experience, she exited the conventional working world to start a farm. She left health care, she said, because she saw so little being done to prevent health problems before they started.

“Healthy food will keep us healthy,” she said.

Now, she owns Eight Mile Creek Farm in Westerlo, running it with her daughter and an intern. She raises cows, chickens, pigs and horses, and grows more than 30 kinds of vegetables.

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If you closed your eyes and imagined a farm, you’d probably picture something like the one owned by Pam Schreiber in Westerlo.

Her family’s white house fronts the property, with a red barn behind it. To the left, rows of planted vegetables stretch away from the house. To the right, cows graze under the sun on grassy fields. Chickens share a pen with horses. A pickup truck rests on a dirt driveway.

These are classic and enduring farm images — farmers, crops and animals in proximity. And in upstate New York, many such farms still thrive.

But the reality of much modern farming is far different. Economies of scale and government policy work against small, diversified farms. Most of the food we buy is instead produced on an industrial scale, with vast fields of a single crop and animals that spend their lives entirely indoors, crowded like commuters on a Manhattan subway.

The industrial, factory-like farm has brought gains in efficiency and food costs.

But a rising chorus of critics question the consequences of industrial-scale farming, citing environmental degradation and potential threats to human health. They wonder if farms, especially those that raise animals, have grown too big, too fast.

“There is a growing awareness and concern about how food is produced,” said Bob Martin, a policy adviser at the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University’s school of public health. “But it’s amazing how little most people know about farm animals. The industry has really perpetrated this image of happy cows on the hillside and pigs lounging in a pasture, when the reality is far more grim.”

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During this year’s State of the Union address, President Obama laid out an important call to action for our country:

“This year let’s all come together, Congress, the White House, businesses from Wall Street to Main Street, to give every woman the opportunity she deserves, because I believe when women succeed, America succeeds.”

As Women’s History Month comes to a close, I would like to call attention to the remarkable work of women of agriculture. Not only are women the heart of many family farming operations across the country, women are starting and growing their own agricultural businesses– creating opportunity and economic growth for their families and in their local communities.

I have had the privilege of meeting many of these women. Just last month, while in Texas, I met Sandy Winokur. Sandy is a Ph.D., an artist, a farmer and a businesswoman. Sandy decided to leave a career in the arts to move back to Texas and start an olive orchard, inspired by her time in the Mediterranean. Today, Sandy’s orchard is home to thousands of olive trees, and her business sells everything from olive almond brittle to lip balm.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Pam Schreiber, owner of Eight Mile Creek Farm, while traveling in New York. In 2005, Pam set out to build her own diversified agricultural business, all while raising her three children. She had no previous background in farming, but it was her deep connection to the land that inspired her to get started. She now produces more than 30 different kinds of fruits and vegetables, certified organic grass-fed beef, organic pork, organic heritage chicken, and cage-free organic eggs.

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