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Quarles named president of NASDA
Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture Ryan Quarles is the 2020-2021 president of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.
“I’m just humbled to be the newly elected president of NASDA and it’s been almost 20 years since Kentucky has had a national president so I know I have big boots to fill,” he says. “I really want to echo the progress that NASDA as an organization has made over the past few years. We’ve worked so hard to develop and strengthen our influence on capitol hill and as elections conclude this November we want to make sure we use our influence to the best of our ability to advance agriculture among the states, nationally, and abroad.”
His theme for the coming year is redefining agriculture.
“It’s so important that we are proactive on this because often times in agriculture if we don’t tell our own story somebody else will do it for us and tell it incorrectly,” he says. “So, we want to make sure that heading into 2021 we are focused on trade, responsiveness to COVID-19, and also we are challenging our federal officials in Washington DC to work with us.”
Quarles tells Brownfield another project that is close to his heart is a national conversation about food insecurity. He says this fall they will be launching a toolkit for state departments of agriculture interested in beefing up efforts to fight food insecurity as the country recovers from COVID-19.
Also elected to NASDA’s Board of Directors are New York Commissioner of Agriculture Richard Ball as vice president, Wyoming Director of Agriculture Doug Miyamoto as second vice president, Indiana Director of Agriculture Bruce Kettler as secretary-treasurer.
Audio: Ryan Quarles
