doi:10.7916/ys8g-xa92Oral history interview with Denise A. O'Brien, 2021O'Brien, Deniseoral historiesmixed materialPresidents--United StatesAgriculture and state--United StatesAgriculture and state--AfghanistanWomen in agriculture--United StatesWomen in agriculture--AfghanistanWomen farmers--United StatesO'Brien, DeniseObama, BarackNational Family Farm Coalition (U.S.)Women, Food & Agriculture NetworkUnited States. Department of AgricultureDenise O'Brien reflects on her career in organic agriculture, activism, and politics, and discusses her service as an agricultural policy advisor for Afghanistan during the Obama administration from 2011 to 2012. O'Brien shares stories of her involvement with many notable twentieth century social and political movements, including the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War movement, back-to-the-land movement, activism in response to the farm crisis of the 1980s, and activism on behalf of women in agriculture. O'Brien describes her grassroots organizing efforts in Iowa during the farm crisis, and recounts her role in the foundings of the Progressive Prairie Alliance; the National Family Farm Coalition; and, following her participation in United Nations conferences in the 1990s, the Women, Food, and Agriculture Network. O'Brien describes her involvement with Iowa state agricultural policy during the governorship of Tom Vilsack, her 2006 campaign for Iowa secretary of agriculture, and her search for a position in the Obama administration. She provides details about the process by which she was trained for deployment to Afghanistan; the barriers to working directly with women farmers in Afghanistan; and the attempts by U.S. advisory delegations to replicate American industrial agricultural methods in Afghanistan, often at the expense of traditional and local water management and growing practices. O'Brien also describes the barriers she faced as a woman in agriculture and in movement politics, and outlines the evolution of women in agriculture from "farmers' wives" to "women farmers" over the course of her career