{"id":75776,"date":"2016-12-05T03:54:43","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T08:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=75776"},"modified":"2016-12-04T18:24:46","modified_gmt":"2016-12-04T23:24:46","slug":"farm-service-agency-extends-voting-deadline-for-county-committee-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=75776","title":{"rendered":"Farm Service Agency extends voting deadline for county committee elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"USDA_Logo\"<\/a>New York state producers now have until Dec. 13 to submit ballots<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Agriculture New York State\u00a0Farm Service Agency Executive Director James Barber announced that the deadline to\u00a0submit ballots for the 2016 County Committee Elections has been extended to ensure farmers and\u00a0ranchers have sufficient time to vote.<\/p>\n

Eligible voters now have until Dec. 13, 2016, to return ballots to\u00a0their local FSA offices. Producers who have not received their ballot should pick one up at their local\u00a0FSA office.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re extending the voting deadline to Dec. 13 to give farmers and ranchers a few additional days to get their ballots in,\u201d said Barber. \u201cI urge all eligible producers, especially minorities and women, to get involved and make a real difference in their communities by voting in this year\u2019s elections.\u00a0This is your opportunity to have a say in how federal programs are delivered in your county.\u201d<\/p>\n

FSA has modified the ballot, making it easily identifiable and less likely to be overlooked. Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked no later than Dec. 13, 2016. Newly elected committee\u00a0members will take office Jan. 1, 2017.<\/p>\n

Nearly 7,700 FSA County Committee members serve FSA offices nationwide. Each committee has three 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, conservation, indemnity, disaster\u00a0and emergency programs.<\/p>\n

Producers must participate or cooperate in an FSA program to be eligible to vote in the County Committee election. Approximately 1.5 million producers are currently eligible to vote. Farmers and ranchers who supervise and conduct the farming operations of an entire farm, but are not of legal\u00a0voting age, also may be eligible to vote.<\/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

USDA works to strengthen and support American agriculture, an industry that supports one in 11 American jobs, provides American consumers with more than 80 percent of the food we consume, ensures that Americans spend less of their paychecks at the grocery store than most people in other\u00a0countries and supports markets for homegrown renewable energy and materials. Since 2009, USDA\u00a0has provided $5.6 billion in disaster relief to farmers and ranchers; expanded risk management tools\u00a0with products like Whole Farm Revenue Protection; and helped farm businesses grow with $36\u00a0billion in farm credit.<\/p>\n

The Department has engaged its resources to support a strong next generation\u00a0of farmers and ranchers by improving access to land and capital, building new markets and market\u00a0opportunities and extending new conservation opportunities. USDA has developed new markets for rural-made products, including more than 2,700 bio-based products through USDA’s Bio-Preferred\u00a0program; and invested $64 billion in infrastructure and community facilities to help improve the\u00a0quality of life in rural America. For more information, visit www.usda.gov\/results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York state producers now have until Dec. 13 to submit ballots The U.S. Department of Agriculture New York State\u00a0Farm Service Agency Executive Director James Barber announced that the deadline to\u00a0submit ballots for the 2016 County Committee Elections has been extended to ensure farmers and\u00a0ranchers have sufficient time to vote. Eligible voters now have until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23679,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agfarming","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75776","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=75776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}