OXFORD – Morrisville State College professor Sheila Marshman of Oxford has been invited to speak at the United Nations about the increasing presence of women in agriculture and their role in a global food market.

Marshman will speak during the Women’s Role in Food Security and Sustainable Development: Partnership Between Rural and Urban Women session during the fifty-sixth meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, which will take place at the UN on March 1. Marshman was nominated to speak on behalf of New York Agri-Women, a statewide organization which she serves as secretary in addition to her tenure at the college.

“There is no higher calling than agriculture,” Marshman said in a phone interview last week. “There is nothing more important than getting up every morning and feeding the world.”

This is the valuable message she will take with her to the UN as she addresses growing concerns that surround domestic and international food markets, traceability of food products, food safety and the challenges small farms face with such issues with her primary focusing being on the roles women play in the process.

“What this is all about is empowering women to feed the world and doing so in a sustainable way ... Women involved in agriculture have a unique relationship,” Marshman explained. “Women will continue to emerge as leaders in the food system. We are educators, entrepreneurs, executives, board members, and stewards of the land.”