USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) has made Aug. 1 the final day for nominations for seats on county committees, comprised of farmers, that are direct links between USDA and a priority constituency. Although FSA county committees do not give final approval for operating loans to local farms, they do make decisions on disaster and conservation programs, emergency programs, commodity price support loan programs and other critical local issues. Farmers of legal voting age are eligible to serve on their county's committee (along with farmers not yet of voting age who supervise operations of an entire farm), provided they have at some point participated in program administered by the FSA.
FSA will certify nominations received by the Aug. 1 cutoff, and beginning Nov. 4 ballots will be mailed to eligible voters. These ballots are due back to the county FSA office by Dec. 2, and newly elected committee members take office on Jan. 1, 2014.
County committees usually consist of three to 11 elected members, serving three-year terms. (There are currently about 7,800 farmers and ranchers serving on FSA county committees.) In the official release from the USDA newsroom announcing FSA county committee elections, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack notes that, "We have been seeing an increase in the number of nominations of women and minority candidates and I hope that trend continues."
