For Immediate Release April 4, 2008
Contact: Arlene Kovash, VP Communications, 503-838-3512
American Agri-Women (AAW) and California Women for Agriculture (CWA) member Karri Hammerstrom was recently appointed to the Farm, Ranches and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee. She was one of 200 applicants for this national position.
Hammerstrom lives in a small town south of Fresno in the heart of the Central San Joaquin Valley north of Los Angeles, where she and her family raise canning peaches, fresh sugar plums, and alfalfa. She also works for a renewable fuels company, Cilion, Inc., as their manager of environmental permitting and government affairs, and her husband Bill also has his own produce brokerage office, Hammertime Co.
Of her appointment to this committee Karri says, “I saw this as an opportunity to participate at the federal level in a committee where I felt I could serve my country in this small capacity and to serve the agricultural community. The identified areas of focus are all ones that I feel I have had experience with and have points of contact that can help provide me with valuable input.”
Initially, the committee is focusing on climate change and renewable energy, livestock operations, and emerging issues (i.e. ag, the environment and urban interface).
Hammerstrom has been a member of California Women for Agriculture for 12 years. She is currently a member of the Tulare-Kings Chapter of CWA and the state's 2nd vice president. She has also held the offices of the state's 3rd vice president and state legislative co-director, as well as two terms as the Central Valley Chapter's president.
Other American Agri-Women members on national committees are Alice Dettwyler, Oregon Women for Agriculture member from Salem, Oregon, on the Agricultural Trade Advisory Committee on Fruits and Vegetables; Minnesota Agri-Women member Doris Mold from St. Paul who is chair of the USDA Advisory Committee for Ag Statistics, and Illinois Agri-Women member Trenna Grabowski from Dubois, Illinois, who is on the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Agricultural Advisory Committee.
For more information, contact Marcie Williams, President,
president@americanagriwomen.org, or visit the web site at
http://www.americanagriwomen.org. American Agri-Women is the nation’s largest coalition of farm, ranch and agribusiness women, with 50 state, commodity, agribusiness affiliate organizations and collegiate chapters throughout the country. AAW is a volunteer organization, working to provide true information about agriculture to the public since 1974.
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