{"id":75025,"date":"2016-11-09T06:57:46","date_gmt":"2016-11-09T11:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=75025"},"modified":"2016-11-09T00:00:18","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T05:00:18","slug":"fsa-county-committee-elections-to-begin-producers-to-receive-ballots-week-of-nov-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=75025","title":{"rendered":"FSA County Committee Elections to Begin; Producers to Receive Ballots Week of\u00a0Nov. 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fsa\"<\/a>Farm Service Agency Administrator Val Dolcini today\u00a0announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin mailing ballots to eligible\u00a0farmers and ranchers across the country for the 2016 FSA County Committee elections Monday,\u00a0Nov. 7, 2016. Producers must return ballots to their local FSA offices by Dec. 5, 2016, to ensure that\u00a0their vote is counted.<\/p>\n

\u201cProducers elected to FSA county committees play a vital role in local agricultural decisions,\u201d said\u00a0Dolcini. \u201cTheir contributions are essential to the daily operation of nearly 2,200 offices across the\u00a0country. It is a valued partnership that helps us better understand the needs of the farmers and\u00a0ranchers we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly 7,700 FSA County Committee members serve FSA offices nationwide. Each committee has\u00a0three to 11 elected members who serve three-year terms of office. One-third of county committee\u00a0seats are up for election each year. County committee members apply their knowledge and judgment\u00a0to help FSA make important decisions on its commodity support programs, conservation programs,\u00a0indemnity and disaster programs, and emergency programs and eligibility.<\/p>\n

Producers must participate or cooperate in an FSA program to be eligible to vote in the county\u00a0committee election. Approximately 1.5 million producers are currently eligible to vote. Farmers and\u00a0ranchers who supervise and conduct the farming operations of an entire farm, but are not of legal voting age, also may be eligible to vote.<\/p>\n

Farmers and ranchers will begin receiving their ballots the week of Nov. 7. Ballots include the names\u00a0of candidates running for the local committee election. FSA has modified the ballot, making it easily\u00a0identifiable and less likely to be overlooked. Voters who do not receive ballots in the coming week\u00a0can pick one up at their local FSA offices. Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked no later than\u00a0Dec. 5, 2016. Newly elected committee members will take office Jan. 1, 2017.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit the FSA website at www.fsa.usda.gov\/elections. You may also contact\u00a0your local USDA Service Center or FSA office. Visit http:\/\/offices.usda.gov to find an FSA office\u00a0near you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Farm Service Agency Administrator Val Dolcini today\u00a0announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin mailing ballots to eligible\u00a0farmers and ranchers across the country for the 2016 FSA County Committee elections Monday,\u00a0Nov. 7, 2016. Producers must return ballots to their local FSA offices by Dec. 5, 2016, to ensure that\u00a0their vote is counted. \u201cProducers elected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23679,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agfarming","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-jw5","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/fsa.jpg?fit=360%2C360&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}