Nomination petitions are being accepted June 15 through Aug. 1 for the Farm Service Agency County Committee.

Anyone interested should contact FSA to request a nominating petition. Butler, Beaver and Allegheny counties are served by a five member county committee. The three-county region has been divided into five different Local Administrative Area's.

This year the election will be held in LAA No. 1 and LAA No. 5. LAA No. 1 includes the following Butler County townships: Mercer, Marion, Venango, Allegheny, Slippery Rock, Cherry, Washington, Parker, Worth, Brady, Clay, Concord, Fairview.

LAA No. 5 includes the following Beaver County townships and all of Allegheny County: Greene, Potter, Raccoon, Center, Hanover, Independence, and Hopewell.

Elected county committee members serve a three-year term and cannot take their position lightly as county committee members play an important role in the local implementation of FSA programs, and the department wants to help ensure they represent America's agricultural mosaic. That's why USDA is trying to emphasize the election and reach out to all producers, especially minority and socially disadvantaged producers, to encourage them to participate in local county committee election.

COC members are a critical component of the day-to-day operations of FSA because they help deliver FSA farm programs at the local level. Farmers who serve on COCs help decide the kind of programs their counties will offer and make sure FSA agricultural programs serve the needs of local producers.

Committees make decisions on commodity price support loans and payments, establishment of allotments and yields, conservation programs and other issues.

Almost anyone eligible to take part in a local FSA program and of legal voting age may be a candidate for a COC.

The following people also are eligible to participate in the election process: an owner, operator, tenant, or sharecropper; a spouse listed on the property deed; the spouse of an eligible voter in a community property state; a partner in a general partnership or member of a joint venture that has an interest in a farm as an owner, operator, tenant, or sharecropper; and someone who is not of legal voting age, but who supervises and conducts the farming operations on an entire farm.

Individuals may nominate themselves or others as a candidate. In addition, candidates can be nominated by organizations representing socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers.

Nominations and elections are open to all eligible candidates and voters without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status or disability. FSA is committed to promoting diversity on its local COCs so minority, female and other under-represented people have a say in how the agency's programs are administered locally.

The COC system was first established in 1936. Today, there are more than 8,000 committee members serving three-year terms in 2,300-plus county offices nationwide, with 44 here in Pennsylvania. Every year, elections are held for about one-third of these seats.

Nomination forms (FSA-669A) can be obtained from local FSA offices or USDA Service Centers or online at http://forms.sc.egov.usda.gov/eforms/mainservlet.

Details on FSA COC elections can be found in a fact sheet located at www.fsa.usda.gov/pas/publications/facts/html/cocelec08.htm.

Luke Fritz is executive director of the Butler County Farm Service Agency.