FSA County Committee Nominations Continue - July 27, 2010
Submitted by Tina A. Crofford

Lance Jacobs, Executive Director for USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Shelby County, today announced farmer and rancher candidate nominations will be accepted through August 2, 2010. Elections take place this fall. Newly elected committee members and alternates take office January 1, 2011.

For election purposes, counties are divided into local administrative areas, or LAAs. Each year, an election is held in an LAA to replace the committee member whose three-year term is expiring. Each LAA selects one producer to serve a three-year term on the Farm Service Agency county committee. This years’ election will be held in LAA 1 whose boundaries are south of FM 138 and west of highway 87 to Shelbyville and west of highway 147.

To be eligible to serve on an FSA county committee, a person must participate or cooperate in a program administered by FSA, be eligible to vote in a county committee election, are of legal voting age and reside in the local administrative area in which the person is a candidate. Producers may also nominate themselves, and organizations representing minority and women may also nominate candidates. To become a nominee, eligible individuals must sign form FSA-669A. The form and other valuable information about FSA county committee elections are available online at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=newsroom&subject=landing&topic=cce or may be picked up at your local FSA office or may be mailed to you upon request. 

FSA county committee members make decisions on disaster and conservation programs, emergency programs, commodity price support loan programs and other important agricultural issues. “I encourage all producers to participate in the county committee election process by nominating candidates by the August 2nd deadline,” said Jacobs. “We are counting on as much participation as possible because county committees are an important link between the farm community and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

For more information about county committees please contact the Shelby County FSA office at 936-598-5557 extension 2, or visit FSA online at http://www.fsa.usda.gov.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual's income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410, or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.