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HERSHEY, Pa. – Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s (PFB) Women’s Leadership Committee has selected Evelyn Minteer of Butler County as the recipient of the 2021 Outstanding Woman in Agriculture Award during the farm organization’s 71st Annual Meeting in Hershey.

The Outstanding Woman in Agriculture Award recognizes a woman who, through her leadership, is contributing to the larger agriculture community. Minteer was born into a dairy farm family and has had a lifetime on the farm. She has been a Farm Bureau member for 30 years, beginning as a county information director. Since then, she has had her hands in numerous Farm Bureau projects.

“I just started out (with) just a few things, not planning to get into a lot of things, but I ended up getting into too many things actually,” Minteer said. “But I enjoy it. I want to support the farmers, and that’s the biggest thing right now. And our consumers need to know more about agriculture.”

Minteer has had many successful projects, but one of her latest is Butler County’s “Buy Local” flyer, which is available to consumers who want to support local businesses. The four-page flyer is a directory of names, addresses and phone numbers that helps promote farmers and agriculture businesses. The flyer is set to expand in 2022 to highlight even more local ag businesses. Minteer has also helped organize basket raffles to raise money to purchase grain rescue tubes for local fire companies.

“Evelyn is a great example of a farmer who really goes the extra mile for her community and for her local Farm Bureau,” said PFB President Rick Ebert. “Her continued involvement over the years has made a huge impact in our mission advocating for agriculture to members of the public.”

“Evelyn is very unique, and she has been a Farm Bureau member forever, and she really sees the value of Farm Bureau in many different ways,” said Sandy Craft, Chair of the Women’s Leadership Committee. “It’s not just the farmer, it’s maybe the person who has the local restaurant or any local business, and she really can sell the value of Farm Bureau to a wide variety of people and talks to them just as a neighbor.”

In addition to her Farm Bureau advocacy, Minteer still tends to her own farm, where she raises beef cattle and chickens.

“I love the farm. I think it’s a good life to have,” Minteer said. “Like I’ve always said, we need to be out there supporting, our farmers need to support agriculture, because we’re the only ones that can promote it.”

Hundreds of farmers from across the state attended Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s 71st Annual Meeting at the Hershey Lodge from November 15-17, to set policy for the statewide organization on issues affecting farm and rural families.

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 Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is the state’s largest farm organization, representing farms of every size and commodity across Pennsylvania.