page_title: MaryJane Butters
section_title: Activism and awards
hierarchical_section_title: MaryJane Butters / Activism and awards
caption_attribution_description: English: MaryJane Butters feeds livestock on her farm in Moscow, ID.
context_page_description: MaryJane Butters is the American organic farmer, book author, environmental activist, and food manufacturer behind the self-titled MaryJanesFarm magazine. Working from her family farm in Moscow, Idaho, and through her websites, Butters has achieved success through a variety of business ventures relating to the domestic arts, organic farming, and a grassroots self-sufficiency movement directed at creating a rural revival.
  Butters is now a fast-growing lifestyle brand with media mentions in outlets such as the Food Network, PBS, NPR, House & Garden, Country Living, The New Yorker, Country Home, The Chicago Tribune, Vogue, and other national publications. Her farm and business were famously immortalized in a large spread in the December 1995 issue of National Geographic.
context_section_description: Butters discovered a calling to environmental activism in May 1986, when the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine dosed the Pacific Northwest with radioactive contamination.  Butters called a public meeting to discuss an unsafe reactor similar to the one at Chernobyl at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in nearby eastern Washington. She founded the Palouse-Clearwater Hanford Watch and succeeded in having the reactor shut down. She then founded and became director of the Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute, taking on broader issues like water quality and transportation. The group began to discuss and address agricultural issues as well, marking the beginning of her public activism for organic farming methods. Between 1986 and 1990, under her leadership, the Institute's annual budget grew from $30 to $100,000 and garnered grants from national nonprofits.  In 2011, PCEI celebrated their 25th anniversary of commitment to regional environmental issues.
  In 2001, Butters received the Idaho Progressive Businessperson of the Year Award in recognition of her efforts toward “social, economic, and environmental justice in Idaho,” In 2002, The Moscow Chamber of Commerce awarded Butters the Small Businessperson of the Year award for her business achievements, especially in light of the successful launch of her magazine.
  In March 2003, The Western SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) Administrative Council appointed Butters as their Organic Farming Representative and charged her with awarding over $4 million in grant funds to farmers, research, and nonprofit organizations in the Western U.S.
  On March 14, 2008, Butters was recognized for her environmental activism with the Cecil D. Andrus Leadership Award for Sustainability and Conservation, awarded by four-term Idaho Governor and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior.  Andrus stated, “MaryJane Butters exemplifies the best of rural America—tireless commitment to stewardship of the land and community, relentless entrepreneurial drive that recognizes no barriers, and boundless creativity and can-do spirit that inspires all who meet her and buy her products.”
  Butters has served a term as chair of Idaho's Organic Advisory Council,  as well as chair of Moscow's Health and Environment Commission. She helped to draft the first U.S. legislation denoting organic standards, and served as a spokesperson for Physicians for Social Responsibility.  Laura Johnson of the Idaho Department of Agriculture has called Butters “a pioneer for organic production in Idaho.”
  Butters has also used her website and sales to support various causes. Some of the products sold on Butters’ website are made by artisans with Project F.A.R.M. (First-class American Rural Made), an organization Butters founded to help revitalize rural business.  She organized a weeklong effort to raise funds for Courageous Women, a Haitian program designed to help homeless women and children after the 2010 earthquake. Butters also donated 20% of sales between March 17, 2011, and March 24, 2011 ($4,485), to the Japanese Red Cross following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and 20% of sales between November 7, 2012, and November 14, 2012 ($2468), to the American Red Cross following 2012's super storm Sandy.
  In December 2011, Butters learned an article in her magazine had been instrumental in helping rebuild the library at Rota after it was destroyed in December 1997 when Typhoon Paka hit the island. In response to a story in MaryJanesFarm magazine, readers sent over 10,000 books to Rota.
  In 2011-2012, More magazine, a women's lifestyle magazine, featured 10 women, each with a full-page article throughout the year, in a year-long campaign detailing companies started by women who were intent on creating jobs for other women. Butters was chosen for her Project F.A.R.M., as many of the project members' retail products on her website and her retail store “come with a face” so that the shopper can meet the person behind the product. Readers were invited to vote for one of the 10 women to receive t
caption: MaryJane Butters feeds livestock on her farm in Moscow in 2005
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