We Don't All Start from the Same Place
March is Women’s History Month and B Corp Month – so we’ll be featuring women business leaders and B Corps in every issue this month.
We don’t all start from the same place.
Boy howdy!
That’s a pretty good way of framing the difference between equality (the same for everyone) and equity (fairness). For your visual today, just think of someone running a 1,600 meter foot race getting a 1,200-meter head start, while others are back in the starting blocks.
I’ll give you a quick intro today to a program started by B Lab U.S. and Canada to help address this issue, then I’ll throw a spotlight on a female farmer who graduated from this program’s first cohort.
B Lab’s program is called “Level.” It’s designed to help businesses led by Black, Indigenous, or People of Color who also identify as women successfully navigate the B Corp certification process. These business leaders work with consultants and are provided with resources to measure and report their impact, tell their story, adopt stakeholder governance, and certify as a B Corp.
Now entering its fourth year, Level has engaged 29 leaders in its program. If you’re interested in learning more about the program – and meeting the 29 Women of Level – you can download this resource document.
Now on to my friend, Farmer Cee Stanley.
Well, we aren’t actually friends, as we haven’t met: online, at a Champion's Retreat, or in the fields. But seeing as how we’re both farmers and B Corpers, I feel as if I can call her a friend – and certainly will be when we get the chance to meet some day.
Clarenda "Cee" Stanley is CEO and President of Green Heffa Farms, a 14.84-acre organic herb farm in Liberty, North Carolina. That acreage might not sound like a lot, but as a guy who works a 1-acre farm I can tell you that’s a whole lotta hands in the soil, buckets' full of sweat, and more sore muscles than you can identify on an anatomical chart!
Green Heffa Farms sells organic herbs and tea online, including herbal tea blends, herbal steam blends, premium hemp flour, and seasonal, single herbs. Farmer Cee also offers workshops and an educational course on “How to secure government grants for small farms.”
A central component of Green Heffa Farms’ mission is to increase the number of socially conscious entrepreneurs and farmers. Farmer Cee centers her mission around the 4E’s: Economic Prosperity, Equity, Education, and Environment.
That last element, Environment, is expressed by the regenerative agriculture she employs on her organic farm: cover cropping, crop rotation, mulching, and no-till/low-till. It’s a lot of work, but it provides a return on effort as well, among the benefits being increased soil health (which contributes to higher yields) and carbon sequestration (which doesn't contribute to you know what).
So now that you know about Farmer Cee – and the 28 other women leaders of the Level program – why not sit back with a cup of tea and think about what your next move will be to improve the lives of people and the health of our planet. I know where you can get some delicious loose-leaf tea that’s packed with antioxidants and blended to support your wellbeing. 😉
Godspeed, friends.
Russ
P.S. You can watch a great short documentary on Farmer Cee here.
And: Not familiar with the term, Boy Howdy? Here you go.
💬 Quote of the Week
"A smooth sea never produced a skilled sailor." Ancient proverb, believed to be African in origin.
💥 Quick Hits
• Here she comes – Women opened more businesses than any other demographic in 2023 according to this article from Fast Company.
• Design, Bitches – Besides the fact that they do beautiful work, how can you not love a women-owned architecture and design studio firm that calls itself, Design, Bitches?
• The stats don't lie – Women outperform as business leaders in the off-grid energy sector – from our friends at 60 Decibels.
😹 Just For Fun
The March Madness bug of college hoops has infected even the lovers of language. Dictionary.com has put together a bracket of 32 funny words to see which one puts a smile on the most faces. While the competition is expected to be fierce and hilarious, I'm putting my money on "dingleberry" to at least reach the Final Four. You can play today here.
🤔 Trivia Time
What percentage of young women say they follow news about climate change and the environment?
• 12%
• 21%
• 42%
• 63%
Today's trivia answer can be found at the bottom of this newsletter.
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Trivia Answer
Twelve percent of young women follow news of climate change and the environment. While this doesn't seem like much, it compares to just 5% of young men to make the same claim. Source: American Enterprise Institute, Washington via Harpers Index.