The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking nominees for the American Pecan Promotion Board. Nominees are needed to fill five seats for members whose terms will begin Oct. 1, 2024, and end Sept. 30, 2027. The deadline for nominations is Feb. 16, 2024.
The American Pecan Promotion Board is seeking nominees for the following seats:
- Three producer seats representing the Central Region
- Two importer seats
The Central Region consists of Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, plus any U.S. state with the majority of its land mass in the Central Time Zone.
The board is made up of 17 industry members including ten producers and seven importers. To serve on the board, producers and importers must have produced or imported more than 50,000 pounds of inshell pecans (25,000 pounds of shelled pecans), on average, for four fiscal periods. Producers who produce pecans in more than one region may seek nomination only in the region in which they produce the majority of their pecans.
More information about the board is available on the Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) American Pecan Promotion Board webpage or on the board’s website at www.eatpecans.com. For nomination information, contact the Anne Warden, CEO of American Pecan Promotion Board, at awarden@eatpecans.com or by phone at (817) 985-3034, or USDA Marketing Specialist Matthew Collins at Matthewb.Collins@usda.gov or by phone at (202) 720-8085.
AMS policy is that diversity of the boards, councils and committees it oversees should reflect the diversity of its industries in terms of the experience of members, methods of production and distribution, marketing strategies, and other distinguishing factors, including but not limited to individuals from historically underserved communities, that will bring different perspectives and ideas to the table. Throughout the full nomination process, the industry must conduct extensive outreach, paying particular attention to reaching underserved communities, and consider the diversity of the population served and the knowledge, skills and abilities of the members to serve a diverse population.
Since 1966, Congress has authorized industry-funded research and promotion boards to provide a framework for agricultural industries to pool resources and combine efforts to develop new markets, strengthen existing markets and conduct important research and promotion activities. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) provides oversight to 22 boards. The oversight ensures fiscal accountability and program integrity, and is paid for by industry assessments.
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