U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has selected five Alabama farmers to serve as Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Committee members.

Monica Carroll of Ozark will serve as committee chair. Other committee members are Andy Lavender of Brundidge, Rodney Moon of Harvest, Steve Penry of Daphne and Doug Trantham of Alexandria. All are Alabama Farmers Federation members.

State committee members are selected by the secretary, serve at the pleasure of the secretary and are responsible for carrying out FSA’s farm programs.

Committee members were appointed for one-year terms, which began Jan. 1.

“It’s an honor to have been chosen to chair our state committee,” said Carroll, who has a diversified farm raising cattle, timber, row crops and poultry with husband Chris. “It’s also a responsibility I take very seriously. I know I speak for the entire committee when I say our goal is to help implement programs fairly and improve service to farmers and landowners in Alabama.”

Federation President Jimmy Parnell praised the appointments.

“Understanding and implementing USDA farm programs can be challenging,” Parnell said. “Secretary Perdue did an excellent job appointing qualified, experienced farmers to our state FSA committee.”

Parnell said the appointments are critical as Congress begins work on the next farm bill.