The White House has announced President Biden’s selection for two state-level Rural Development leaders and four Farm Service Agency state directors.
Theresa Greenfield, who grew up on an Iowa farm during the 1980s farm crisis, will head-up Rural Development in her home state. Greenfield challenged Sen. Joni Ernst in 2020 and has also worked in community development and housing.
In Colorado, the new Rural Development state director will be Armando Valdez, who grew up on a cattle, sheep, small grains and hay operation near Capulin, Colorado. Valdez and his family continue to run the farm and ranch, and he is also a professor in the business school at Adams State University. Valdez served on the state FSA committee during the Obama administration.
Another former state FSA committee member from Iowa will take on that state’s director role. Matt Russell operates a grass-finished beef and specialty crops farm with his husband south of Des Moines. Russell has previously worked to engage farmers on climate change solutions while at Interfaith Power and Light and as an advocate for local and regional food systems at the Drake University Agricultural Law Center.
Colorado’s new FSA state director, Kent Peppler, is a fourth-generation farmer from Mead. He was a member of the Colorado state FSA committee from 1995-2000 and has been a trade advisor on USDA's Sweeteners Agriculture Trade Advisory Committee and the president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.
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After more than 20 years with FSA, Alabama farmer Clifton Warren Jr. will become that state’s director. He has been a technician and operations reviewer at the county level, a county executive director and a district director. Warren grew up on a hog, corn and vegetable farm in Greene County, Alabama.
A Delaware District Director will become that state’s FSA director when Robin Talley takes on the role. Talley, who grew up on a dairy farm, has administered USDA loans for three field offices in Delaware and has received multiple awards for her service to agriculture in the state.
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