Betsy Garrold

Board

Betsy Garrold grew up in Searsport Maine and currently lives in Knox. Garrold practiced for 30 years as and RN and a Nurse Midwife.  Garrold returned to Maine with her son in 1999 to a piece of land she homesteads to this day.

Since retiring she has devoted herself to volunteer work and food sovereignty activism.  As President of Food for Maine’s Future she was part of the group that pushed for the passage of the Food Sovereignty Act of 2017 and was part of the political action committee that successfully passed the Right to Food Constitutional Amendment in November 2021.  She has served as both a citizen and a paid lobbyist in Augusta around several local food issues.

As past Vice President of the National Family Farm Coalition she has worked with farmers and ranchers across the country protecting small family farmers from the overreach of the corporate food monopolies.  

In keeping with her devotion to making sure local people have access to local food  she volunteers at the Jackson Food Pantry and helps run the seedling project for Waldo County Bounty.  She is a past board member of the Marsh River Co-op, the Belfast Co-op and Fedco Seeds.  She currently sits on the board of the Farwell Project in Thorndike and the Executive Committee of the National Family Farm Coalition.