According to the 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture, the most recent data available, women make up 30 percent of all farm operators in the United States. While the number of principal farm owners decreased slightly from the 2007 to 2012 census, the trend has gone up over the last decade, driven by a few key shifts in farming. More women today are in leadership positions in farming and agriculture. In addition, there has been a surge of women starting their own small farms, which has likely tipped the scale in women's favor when it comes to compensation. "It's a catch-up of the past but it's also this new movement of fresh farm entrepreneurs," Lisa Kivirist, a farmer, entrepreneur and the author of "Soil Sisters, a Toolkit for Women Farmers," tells CNBC Make It. Much of the growth is in organics, small-scale localized farming that doesn't fit into traditional agriculture boxes, she says."Women embrace diversification on a higher level, I would say, than a male traditional farmer," says Kivirist. Women farmers are also creative, optimizing every inch of their farms, which is good for business.