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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.
County committee members 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 two, which in general is the Almond, Endy and Furr townships, 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 nominated in LAA 2, Stanly County, for a 3-year term in this year’s election are:

• Curtis Furr, owner of Big Bear Creek Farms Inc, is nominated in LAA 2, Stanly County, to serve as a committee member for a 3-year term. He resides in Albemarle and has produced corn, soybeans, small grains, and cotton for 47 years. Curtis is the current chair of the Stanly County FSA Committee, VP of the Stanly County Farm Bureau, Supervisor and chair of the Stanly Soil & Water Conservation District Board, and a member of the Cooperative Extension Advisory Board, Friends of the Agri-Civic Center, chairman of Ridgecrest Fire Department, and deacon at Bear Creek Primitive Baptist church.
• David Underwood is nominated in LAA 2, Stanly County, to serve as a committee member for a 3-year term. He resides in Albemarle and has produced cotton, corn and soybeans for 14 years. David is the current Vice President of the North Carolina Cotton Producer’s Association, member of Southern Cotton Growers, Stanly County Farm Bureau, and Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.

• Chris Furr, member of Furr Farms Inc, is nominated in LAA 2, Stanly County, to serve as a committee member for a 3-year term. He resides in Albemarle and has produced soybeans, corn, small grains, milo, hay, and straw for 15 years, and raised beef cattle for many years in the past. Chris is a former member of the Stanly County Farm Service Agency Committee, and is a deacon at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.

More information on county committees, such as the new 2024 fact sheet, can be found on the FSA website at https://www.fsa.usda.gov/news-room/county-committee-elections/index or at a local USDA Service Center.