Tuesday was also election day for the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance board of directors – but fortunately without any drama.
Wisconsin farmer Nancy Kavazanjian officially ended her term as chairperson this week and Brad “Pig Farmer of the Year” Greenway, who represents the National Pork Board, is the new chair for the agricultural advocacy organization.
“It’s been an amazing couple of years with USFRA,” said Kavazanjian, who will continue to represent the United Soybean Board on the USFRA board. “This is the best of the best, the brains of agriculture.”
Kavazanjian is proud of the difference that USFRA has made in just six years and how the organization has started to get more assertive recently, such as challenging to Dannon on GMOs. “We believe in dialogue and we won’t go away from that, but we also realized we needed to be more assertive,” she said. “Sometimes we’re just too nice in agriculture!”
For his part, Greenway is looking forward to continuing taking the story of farming to the American public. “I’ve always been proud of what we do on our farm and how we care for our animals,” he said. “This is about transparency and consumers are truly interested in what we do on the farming and that’s an opportunity to get our story out.”
Listen to and share interviews with USFRA past and present chairs:
Interview with Nancy Kavazanjian, USFRA immediate past chair
Interview with Brad Greenway, USFRA chair