The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced the appointment of six members to serve on the United Sorghum Checkoff Program’s board of directors. Five of the appointees will serve three-year terms and one member will serve a two-year term. The terms of the members appointed to three-year terms start December 2023 and end December 2026. The term of the member appointed to a two-year term starts immediately.
Newly appointed members are James Jay Haase, Eads, Colorado; Ethan J. Miller, Columbia, Missouri; Tracy Zink, Indianola, Nebraska; David K. Schemm, Sharon Springs, Kansas; Brian Adamek, Victoria, Texas; and Scott Irlbeck, Lubbock, Texas.
The 13-member United Sorghum Checkoff Program Board is composed of nine sorghum farmers who represent the three states with the largest sorghum production—Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma—and four at-large national representatives. More information about the board is available on the Agricultural Marketing Service United Sorghum Checkoff Program webpage and on the board’s website, sorghumcheckoff.com.
Since 1966, Congress has authorized the development of industry-funded research and promotion boards to provide a framework for agricultural industries to pool their resources and combine efforts to develop new markets, strengthen existing markets and conduct important research and promotion activities. AMS provides oversight of 22 boards, paid for by industry assessments, which helps ensure fiscal accountability and program integrity.
AMS policy is that diversity of the boards, councils and committees it oversees should reflect the diversity of their industries in terms of the experience of members, methods of production and distribution, marketing strategies, and other distinguishing factors, including but not limited to individuals from historically underserved communities, that will bring different perspectives and ideas to the table. Throughout the full nomination process, the industry must conduct extensive outreach, paying particular attention to reaching underserved communities, and consider the diversity of the population served and the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the members to serve a diverse population.
