Washington Ag Today June 24, 2011 Mt. Vernon, Washington grower Darrin Morrison has been on the Washington State Potato Commission seven years and worked his way through about all of its committees. Next month he will move up to be chairman of the commodity organization.

Morrison: “It is just exciting. I am looking forward to a challenge that I think I am up to. It is a big commission. We have a lot of issues to cover. We have a great staff, great leadership and a bunch of great commissioners that will help me out.”

Morrison says there are two items of major work for the commission this year. One is re-structuring some committees.

Morrison: “We are re-structuring the E & R Committee and the Trade and Market Access Committee and we are going to combine the two and call it a Government Affairs Committee. And basically we will take the old E & R Committee and take the legislative part of all of our trade issues and wrap them together. There is a lot of common stuff we do there. It will make our staff a little more efficient. Make our committees a little more efficient.”

Morrison says the other part of trade, like trades shows will be joined with what was Public Industry and Communication and is being called Market and Industry Affairs.

Another item will be a long-range planning session to look several years down the road. Morrison says some of the challenges they already see are reduced government funding for research and trade issues.

That’s Washington Ag Today. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission. Nutrition today. Good health tomorrow. I’m Bob Hoff on Northwest Aginfo Net.