The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking nominations of qualified watermelon producers and handlers for eight seats on the National Watermelon Promotion Board.
Appointees will be selected by the secretary of agriculture and will succeed members whose terms of office expire on Dec. 31, 2022. Appointed members will serve a three-year term.
Nominees are needed to fill two producer seats and two handler seats in District 4 and District 5.
District 4 consists of the following states: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC.
District 5 consists of: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
The board will hold teleconference calls in early 2022 for each district, so that producers and handlers may select their representatives. For more information about district meetings and nomination information, contact Rebekah Dossett, the board’s director of operations and industry affairs, or Andrea Smith, the board’s industry affairs manager, at (407) 657-0261.
The board is made up of 30 industry members including 10 producers, 10 handlers, nine importers, and one public member. More information about the board is available on the AMS website, www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/research-promotion/watermelon and on the board’s website, www.watermelon.org .
You may also contact, Marlene Betts, marketing specialist, USDA, at (202) 720-5057 or Marlene.Betts@usda.gov.
