Hi I'm Anne Alonzo, AMS Administrator, here at
USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service or AMS
we recognize that the face of agriculture is
changing.
As we oversee more than 20 Research and Promotion
Boards that provide nutrition, research,
marketing and consumer outreach, AMS knows that
board members need to reflect the diversity of
the industries they represent and the
consumers they serve.
This means adding more talented women and
minorities as well as seeking diversity in
members age, size of operation, geographic
distribution and production practices.
The recently released data from the 2012 Census of
Agriculture also tells us that all categories of
minority operated farms increased since the 2007
Census.
Hispanic operated farms for example had a
significant 21 percent increase so it looks like
we have minority farmer talent in the marketplace.
Let's do all we can to attract these minority
farmers to our boards.
AMS is committed to supporting and
strengthening the effectiveness of our
boards and making sure that they can adapt to a
fast changing marketplace.
A major part of this effort is cultivating
board leadership that provides diverse
experiences, perspectives and opinions.
We've put together the video to encourage diverse
candidates to serve on the boards which we know will
improve their overall effectiveness.
We'd like you to hear first hand why some of our
current board members answer the call to serve
with the hope that it will encourage other talented
candidates to be a part of strengthening US
agriculture.
To get involved, if you want to know and stay
abreast of all the new issues that are affecting
a commodity, if you want to stay intune as to issues
about quality, disease, how to market the
commodity, the best place to be is on a marketing
board.
There is a group of growers, handlers,
importers, people there sharing knowledge that is
incredible and it's more, the time that you invest
is nothing compared to the information that you come
out and the knowledge that you gain from serving on
the board.
The information that's now available to retailers,
growers, consumers if you go to the websites, if you
take a look at all that you're going to sit back
and just say I was part of that, I helped my little
drop made a big impact, it feels really good.
I think one of the most exciting things is to meet
all of the dairy farmers from across the country
and find that we have such common goals and a passion
for our industry and what we do and it becomes like
just a big family and everybody helps you along
because there's so many things going on with our
board, new innovation, new partnerships, new
research, it's just so exciting to be a part of
that and hear all the exciting things that we
have opportunities to become involved in.
I think that you have to have a passion, you
know, for sure, in your industry and I really feel
that everyone I know pretty much has that passion.
It's worth the sacrifices of being off the farm.
I really think that women are very well accepted on
the board, the women who have paved the way in the
past ahead of me, it has been a majority of men I
think but the women that have become involved open
the door more for women like me and we have a lot
of new younger board members.
It's just great but I think coming from a dairy
farm and working with our families, the older
generation, the younger generation it becomes a
very easy mix to serve on the board.
What's been exciting for me is to be elected twice
now, for the two terms, and to represent 70,000
producers in the United States, it is...it's an
experience that it's hard to explain but I would
gladly do so to anyone that shows any interest
and have done so.
It's a fabulous experience, it's non-stop
education and I've been able to help other
producers throughout the country realize that
diversity is a wonderful thing.
The biggest challenge that I see is the time
commitment but if you can do it, it's just extremely
rewarding.
My experience as a board member has been very
rewarding, any opportunity I have to encourage
someone to try to get on the board I will do so,
it's a wonderful thing.
If you really want to know what's going on, you need
to be part of a board or, you know, actively engaged.
In order to help our farmers do a better job of
producing what they're trying to produce I needed
to get involved so I started visiting other
growers all around the country, making myself
known and letting it be known that I was
interested in becoming a member and I was nominated
and selected and I'm not only on the National
Watermelon Promotion Board but I'm also on the
National Watermelon Association Board and also
the Texas Watermelon Association.
How are you going to learn what's going on if you
don't get involved and it's not for everybody but
the ones that can should, you know, you've got to
feed your family and we're losing our farmers.
They're getting older, they're retiring and we've
got to encourage young people to get back on the farm.
When I got involved I was the only African American
involved that I would see at any of the association
meetings and most of these industries are family
farms and it's a family environment and an
environment where people can share information but
the benefits is you're going to have a seat at
the table and be able to gather information that
you're going to be able to help you, your business
and your family and encourage as many people
as possible that will ask me for advice or my
opinion and I think that you should serve
somewhere.
You need to give back and give forward.
I've learned so much over the last four years that
as I've served on the board.
It's a well polished organization, I can pick
up the phone and get information from any of
those people and we need more farmers.
I was aware of the Cotton Board and locally there is
a very strong cotton producer organization on
the leading edge of events going on within the
industry and they are one of the producer
organizations that nominate people to the
Cotton Board.
The industry, however you earn a living, is you need
to know about and you need to support it, if it's
important enough for you to work in it you need to
know what goes on in it and do anything that you
can to keep that a viable industry and yes I think
anyone should be involved, there are...not everyone
can be involved to a whole extent but everyone can be
knowledgeable of what is going on in their industry
and how efforts are made to promote their industry.
You have to be willing to learn and be open to new
ideas and to continue learning throughout the
process and certainly that is a benefit.
I don't see that being a woman or a minority has
been a challenge, I mean if you come prepared with
knowledge and willingness, people are very generous
in talking with you and getting to know you and
sharing their knowledge with you and everyone
brings a different perspective to any
organization but as a group know that we can
move forward and work together.
It has been very beneficial to me because I
have been presented the opportunity to meet many
different people, growers from many different parts
of the country and just to be exposed to the
knowledge and the skills and things that these
people have done has just been enormously
beneficial to me.
I'm just happy to do anything that I can to
keep the cotton industry a viable industry.
Now that you've heard all of these great testimonies,
the only thing left to do is to act.
We need your help to make sure that our boards are
able to reap the rewards of all types of diversity.
Please nominate candidates that you feel will help
their respective industries meet the
demands of a fast changing marketplace.
You can find more information about our
boards at
www.ams.usda.gov/ researchandpromotion.
You can also call our Outreach Office at
202-690-0487.
Remember, it takes good leaders for an industry to prosper,
with your help our Research and Promotion
Boards can ensure that American agriculture will
continue to be a leader in the global economy,
thank you very much.
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