CLARION – The League of Women Voters of Clarion County is sponsoring a presentation on Women in Agriculture: From Consumer to Farmer on April 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Main Street Center in Clarion. Maggie Robertson, owner of M&M Robertson Farms, will make the presentation. It is free and open to the public.
Rovertson will discuss:
— Where our food comes from, how it is produced, and the resources needed to produce it
— Maintaining healthy farm ecosystems and the small family farm
— Women farmers and their growing place in our food system
— How non-farming women influence agriculture
— How consumers can become familiar with their food sources
— How we can purchase food to maximize the benefits to our families and communities
Robertson and her husband, Mik, bought their farm in Sligo in 1998. In 2004, Maggie Robertson started the Food From Earth CSA (community supported agriculture) venture, and in 2006 she became the manager of the Clarion County Farmer’s Market. The Robertsons’ farm was certified organic from 2001 to 2005, and last year they became Certified Naturally Grown, a grassroots non-governmental certification program with the same standards as the federal organic program.
She is a regional representative for the Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network (PA-WAGN). She attended the first national Women in Sustainable Agriculture (WISA) conference in 2005, and is on the conference committee for the second WISA conference, to be held in Pennsylvania in 2008. She is also a member of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture.
The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting democracy in America and to raising awareness of the need for greater citizen participation in the democratic process. For more information, call the League of Women Voters at 226-8150.