It is the latest accolade for the part-time vet and charity champion whose energy has seen the Fairtrade town movement spread around the globe since Garstang declared itself the world's first Fairtrade town in 2000.
Mr Crowther will receive the award from a member of the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace sometime during 2009.
Mr Crowther has been campaigning on behalf of Oxfam since 1984 and has been a Fairtrader for 14 years - since the movement's inception in 1994.
He said: "I'm just one of millions of people who care about the poverty and inequality that underlies most, if not all that is wrong in our unjust world.
"I hope by accepting this award on behalf of this mass movement of people it will help to promote even greater awareness of poverty and the part we all play in it."
His other honours include being a chief of New Koforidua (Garstang's twin town in Ghana), and being described as a "local hero" by Gordon Brown, who included Mr Crowther in his recent book on community champions.
Garstang was named the world's first Fairtrade town in 2000 and with Mr Crowther's help, more than 560 other towns and cities across the world now have the same status – including Dublin, Rome, San Francisco and London.
He is the latest Garstang resident to receive the MBE. In the 2008 honours list Garstang's Britain in Bloom leader Mrs Norah Hoyles was awarded the honour for her community work.
* More on Bruce's honour in the Garstang Courier on Wednesday, January 7, 2009.