DENVER (March 22, 2012)—Alex Tiede of American Falls, ID, was seated as a Board Member on the United States Potato Board (USPB) at the organization’s 40th Annual Meeting, March 15-16, in Colorado Springs, CO. He was named to serve on the Board by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on February 6, 2012, for a three-year term ending February 28, 2015. New Board Members serving on the USPB in their first three-year term can be reappointed to serve a second consecutive three-year term.
Tiede returned to the family farm in 2006 after graduating in Business from Albertson’s College of Idaho, Boise, ID. He is the fourth generation Tiede to farm in the Pleasant Valley area, west of American Falls, ID, where his great grandfather homesteaded in 1908. His father, Jim, grows over 3,000 acres of sugar beets, corn, wheat, peas and famous Idaho potatoes for frozen processing.
In 2007, Tiede started renting around 500 acres of potatoes from his father, and he helps run the farm which received the National Potato Council’s (NPC) Environmental Stewardship Award in 2009. This past year was his fourth crop grown under a joint venture contract with Lamb Weston. He is looking forward to increasing his involvement on the farm, and now owns his own trucking enterprise to serve its harvest, planting and seasonal hauling requirements.
Tiede recognizes the benefits and importance of being involved in the potato industry first hand by watching and learning from his father and his interaction with the many friends he has met through the industry. He is looking forward to being given the opportunity to follow his father’s lead. He was part of the 2010 PILI class.
In his spare time, Tiede likes to spend time with his friends and family hunting, fishing, water skiing, snow skiing, snowmobiling, golfing and playing baseball.
Alex Tiede was confirmed with fellow New and Re-Nominated USPB Board Members by Patricia Petrella, USDA-AMS Marketing Specialist, Fruit and Vegetable Programs (right side podium)at the 40th USPB Annual Meeting, Thursday, March 15, 2012, at The Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs, CO. Bob Keeney, USDA-AMS Deputy Administrator, Fruit and Vegetable Programs (second from left), also welcomed and approved the confirmation of the new and returning USPB Board Members.
Authorized under the 1971 Potato Research and Promotion Act, the USPB is composed of producers, importers and a public member appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture. Producer members are nominated at state and local producer meetings and by mail ballot. Each state is entitled to at least one producer member, and additional members are allotted on the basis of the volume of production. Importer members are nominated by importers, and the number of members is related to the volume of imports, up to a maximum of five importer members.
The USPB administers an industry-funded national research and promotion program to increase US exports and domestic potato consumption. USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service oversees the operations of the USPB. More information about the research and promotion programs is available at www.ams.usda.gov/FVPromotion.
For more information on the USPB as the nation’s potato marketing organization, positioned as the “catalyst for positive change,” and the central organizing force in implementing programs that will increase demand for potatoes, please visit www.uspotatoes.com.
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