The V.I. Department of Agriculture will host the annual regional business meeting of the Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture June 22-27 at the Buccaneer Hotel on St. Croix.
Sharing information with fellow agriculture commissioners on local circumstances and current efforts to revive the industry is part of the goal of this year’s meeting, said Gov. John deJongh Jr., Sunday in a statement.
“The regional meeting will also be used to strengthen partnerships with other state departments to enhance local efforts,” he said.
The Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture is an organization of chief executives of state departments of agriculture throughout the southern region of the United States. The mission of SASDA is to represent the southern region state departments of agriculture by developing and implementing sound public policies and programs to support and promote the regional agricultural industry. Its members include fifteen states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The annual meetings provide an opportunity for SASDA to conduct its business affairs in addition to enhancing and strengthening networking throughout the region.
Along with other commissioners of agriculture, private agribusinesses and growers associations will attend from southern states and jurisdictions, including Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Texas, and Puerto Rico.
This year’s meeting opens with presentations from the Agriculture Department and the UVI Cooperative Extension Service. Other regional and national representatives will give U.S. Department of Agriculture program updates. Cultural activities and agriculture-focused field trip also have been planned as well as a dinner at Government House. The week’s program will end with an island tour and festivities at the annual Mango Melee and Tropical Fruits Festival at the St. George Botanical Garden on Sunday.
Hosting this meeting in the territory offers increased exposure and focus on issues in local agriculture and the opportunity to engage in mutually beneficial partnership. And it is consistent with the administration’s efforts to increase public private partnerships, regionally and nationally, to advance the growth and development of the local agricultural industry, said Agriculture Commissioner Louis Petersen in the statement.
"SASDA played a very important support and lobbying role in the administration’s local efforts to acquire eligibility for the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program which was finally achieved in May 2008,” Petersen said.
Commissioner Petersen was elected as SASDA secretary in 2007 and served as vice president from 2008 – 2009. He currently serves as the association’s first president from the Territory.
