USRPA Board of Directors Holds Summer Meeting in Missouri

July 8, 2022

This week in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the Board of Directors of the US Rice Producers Association held their summer board meeting that included attendance in-person as well as virtually. After reports on each of the six rice states and a financial report, Vernie Hubert and Alice Gomez from Cornerstone Government Affairs updated farmers on a number of current issues on Capitol Hill and the USDA. Marcela Garcia and Grace Wang discussed the organization’s international programs while Mollie Buckler joined them in an evaluation of the successful Rice Market & Technology Convention recently held in Cancun, Mexico. Staff from the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service participated in a good discussion with board members and complimented the USRPA on their progress and successes. The meeting ended with Mollie leading a discussion of the USRPA’s Farmer Exchange Program that educates young farmers on a number of challenges in the rice farming industry while conducting farm and facility visits in different states.

After the meeting concluded, the board members headed further into the Bootheel for a visit with Zack Tanner at Tanner Seed Company near Bernie, and a stop at the Missouri Rice Research Farm near Glennonville.

Zach Tanner, owner of Tanner Seed Company in the Missouri Bootheel, explains seed variety production projects to rice farmers from Texas, Louisiana, and Missouri.
USRPA board members took advantage of their summer board meeting taking place in Cape Girardeau to pay a visit to Zack Tanner and Tanner Seed Company. From left are Galen Franz (Inez, Texas), Neal Stoesser (Raywood, Texas), Dustin Watkins (Welsh, Louisiana), Mitch Thomas (Neelyville, Missouri), Mark Pousson (Welsh, Louisiana), Alex Clark (Poplar Bluff, Missouri) and Zack Tanner. Zack serves on the board of the Missouri Rice Council.
Neal Stoesser, a rice farmer from Raywood, Texas and vice-chairman of the USRPA checks in with his farming operation in Texas while on a visit to the Missouri Rice Research Farm.
At the Missouri Rice Research Farm are from left Mitch Thomas, Galen Franz, Dustin Watkins, Alex Clark and Mark Pousson. Both Thomas and Clark serve on the Missouri Rice Council and USRPA Board of Directors. Alex is the current USRPA chairman.
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