F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 8 22 POTATO GROWER Potato Growers Select 2018 Leadership At the National Potato Council’s (NPC) 2018 Annual Meeting January 12-13th in Orlando, Florida, Cully Easterday of Easterday Farms in Pasco, Washington, was elected to serve as NPC’s 2018 President and to lead the council’s Executive Committee. As president, Mr. Easterday will host the 2018 NPC Summer Meeting in Leavenworth, Washington, July 18-20. The Executive Committee holds office for one calendar year. NPC delegates also approved Larry Alsum of Friesland, Wisconsin, as First Vice President and Vice President of the Finance and Office Procedures Committee; Dominic LaJoie of Van Buren, Maine, as Vice President of the Environmental Affairs Committee; Britt Raybould of St. Anthony, Idaho, as the Vice President of the Legislative and Government Affairs Committee; R.J. Andrus of Idaho Falls, Idahoas the Vice President of the Industry Research and Grower Outreach Committee and Jared Balcom of Pasco, Washington as Vice President of the Trade Affairs Committee. The 2017 President, Dwayne Weyers, will continue to serve on the Exec- utive Committee as the Immediate Past President. The 2018 Executive Committee will meet at the Potato D.C. Fly-In February 26th-March 1st to contin- ue their work for the industry. This includes leading more than 150 growers to Capitol Hill to meet with Senators and Members of the House to communicate industry priorities including; the need to support for- eign trade deals that facilitate potato exports, addressing the agricultural labor crisis, reconsidering the imple- mentation of the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) rule and reauthorizing the Farm Bill. NPC 2018 Executive Committee (front row, left to right): R.J. Andrus, Britt Raybould, Cully Easterday, Larry Alsum, (top row, left to right) Jared Balcom, Dwayne Weyers, Dominic LaJoie.