From Grassroots to Grasstops

Abstract This chapter explores some of the unique resourcefulness strategies the women of National Women in Agriculture Association (NWIAA) employed in their quest to navigate unjust structures in agriculture and protect their cultural legacies, historical lived experiences, and shared agricultural knowledge. By applying two axioms of politics of resourcefulness (POR), resources and recognition, the chapter explores how the women fostered cultural enclaves to “take up” physical and social space, cultivate their own voice infrastructures, and forge partnerships with those outside of their direct social networks. It also documents the political strategies they used to garner external recognition with power holders outside of the community and internal recognition from in-group stakeholders—situating this context within a broader sociopolitical struggle that constrained their actions.