FSA Encourages Farmers and Ranchers to Vote in County Committee Elections

The 2024 Farm Service Agency County Committee Elections will begin on Nov. 4, 2024, when ballots are mailed to eligible voters. The deadline to return ballots to local FSA offices, or to be postmarked, is Dec. 2, 2024.

County committee member4s are an important component of the operations of FSA and provide a link between the agricultural community and USDA. Farmers and ranchers elected to county committees help deliver FSA programs at the local level, applying their knowledge and judgment to make decisions on commodity price support programs; conservation programs; incentive indemnity and disaster programs for some commodities; emergency programs and eligibility. FSA committees operate within official regulations designed to carry out federal laws.

To be an eligible voter, farmers and ranchers must participate or cooperate in an FSA program. A person who is not of legal voting age but supervises and conducts the farming operations of an entire farm, may also be eligible to vote. A cooperating producer is someone who has provided information about their farming or ranching operation(s) but may not have applied or received FSA program benefits.

Eligible voters in local administrative area LAA#3, who do not receive a ballot can obtain one from their local USDA Service Center.

Newly elected committee members will take office Jan. 1, 2025.

The candidates in this year’s election are:

Robert Wallace, Jr has been nominated in LAA-3, East Baton Rouge to serve as COC member for a term of three years beginning January 2025. Mr. King resides in Zachary and has produced livestock for twelve years. He is willing to serve on the County Committee in East Baton Rouge Parish.

George LaCour is nominated in LAA 3, area east of Bayou Barre and Portage Canal, North of Hwy 190, and west of West Baton Rouge/West Feliciana Parish line and south of the Mississippi River, to serve as a committee member for a 3-year term. LaCour resides in Morganza and has produced wheat, cotton., corn, soybeans, grain sorghum and sugarcane for 43 years.

Martin Ourso is nominated in LAA 5, the boundaries of LAA 5 of Iberville County (Parish) bounds the southern boundary of LAA4, boundary line of St. Martin County (Parish) to the west, boundary line of Iberia County (Parish) and Assumption County (Parish) to south/southwest, and boundary line of Ascension County (Parish) on the east, to serve as a committee member for a 3-year term. Ourso resides in Plaquemine and has produced soybeans and sugarcane for 8 years.