Lise Metzger is an award-winning professional photographer known for her elegant photo shoots for advertising, magazines and corporate clients. In recent years, she’s expanded her portfolio into new dimensions through photographing and writing about women farmers.

 

On her blog, Grounded Women.com, Lise shares engaging profiles of women who have chosen farming as a way of life. Her compelling narrative and photos capture the daily joys and challenges of life on a farm.  This project is a labor of love for Lise, and just one facet of her commitment to the sustainable food movement.  

 

 Listen to the podcast to hear Lise discuss: 

• Educating people about the benefits of eating "real food." 
• Grounded Women, Lise's multimedia website about women farmers.
• Life as a professional photographer, teacher, and editor. 
• Transitioning from magazine editor to photographer through taking classes at the Corcoran.
• Hosting a CSA (community supported agriculture) and what Lise does with her vegetables (including bartering for a website).
• Master food volunteering at homeless shelters, food banks, farmers markets.
• Her daughter's gap year in Americorps.
• Finding her voice and writing rhythm.  
• Learning about farming through spending time on Shannon Varley's farm in Knoxville, MD. 
• The creative challenge of photographing farm animals vs. humans.
• Why women farmers are drawn to their lifestyle. 
• Kelly Hensing's story of creating Hilltop Acres Farm in Dayton, MD. She became a farmer because she wanted her family to have raw milk; so she bought a cow, then three pigs, and ten sheep.
• Nora Crist, of Clark's Elioak Farm, a seventh generation farmer, who controls her rheumatoid arthritis through her diet. 
• Selling her farm prints.
• Financing Grounded Women through donations and corporate sponsors.

 

Quotes from Lise:

 

"I'm on a mission to change the way people eat."

"The food we eat has a huge impact on how we feel."

"Women farmers compose one of the fastest growing demographics in the U.S."

"1 in 3 kids will develop type 2 diabetes."

"Half of the crop land in America is used to grow corn and soy."

"Only 2% of our farmland goes to growing fruits and vegetables."

"Get to know your farmers. Talk to the farmer and find out how the food is grown." 

 

 Connect with Lise:

GroundedWomen.com

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