A P R I L 2 0 1 7 POTATO GROWER 27 John Halverson Becomes Potatoes USA Chairman; New Board Members Sworn In Potatoes USA, formerly known as the US Potato Board held it Annual Meeting last week in Denver. John Halverson of Arbyrd, Missouri became the new chairman of Potatoes USA replacing Mike Pink of Pasco, Washington. John's family owns Black Gold Farms which has 11 farms in nine states and is head- quartered in Grand Forks, North Dakota. John represents Missouri which is in the North Central caucus along with North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and six other midwest states. We at NPPGA are excited to have John become the new chair- man as he is very familiar with the challenges the potato industry faces in our area. North Dakota and Minnesota each elected one new board member this year to fill expired terms. In North Dakota Carl Hoverson was replaced on the board by Tom Enander, a foundation seed grower from Grenora. In Minnesota, Justin Dagen was replaced by Jennifer Borowicz of Crookston who farms with HFC Inc. (Hapka) near Argyle. Other board members continuing on are in North Dakota - Eric Halverson of Black Gold Farms, Grand Forks, Casey Hoverson of Hoverson Farms, Larimore, Bill Sheldon from Ray and Jeff VanRay from Pingree. In Minnesota Gary Gray and Jeff Edling, both from Clear Lake will remain on the board. Board members are elected to three year terms and can serve two con- secutive terms. The number of board seats each state has is deter- mined by production. North Dakota has five seats and Minnesota has three. By contrast, Idaho, the nation's leading producer has 25 seats.