On June 3, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the 29 new members of the Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Committee for its 2010-2012 term.

We are proud to say that Martha Noble, NSAC Senior Policy Associate, has been renamed to the panel for a second term.  Noble is a lawyer and NSAC’s policy specialist on agriculture and environment issues.  She serves as vice-chair for the Agricultural Management Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources and as an Executive Committee member of the Clean Water Network’s Board of Directors.

The new committee chairman will be Steve Balling, the Director for Agriculture and Analytic Services for Del Monte Foods, known best for developing the company’s IPM program. Balling takes over leading the committee from outgoing chairman Jim Moseley.

Other members include North Dakota Farmers Union President Robert Carlson, Ann Sorenson with American Farmland Trust, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, Gabriela Chavarria, Science Center director for Natural Resources Defense Council, Dennis Treacy of Smithfield Foods, Texas Mexico Border Coalition Chair Omar Garza, and Janis McFarland with Syngenta.

The members were selected from applicants who responded to a request for applications published last November.

According to EPA, “The FRRCC is a policy-oriented committee that provides policy advice, information, and recommendations to the Administrator on a range of environmental issues and policies that are of importance to agriculture and rural communities. The FRRCC addresses specific topics of relevance to agriculture as identified by the Agricultural Counselor to the Administrator, and reports its policy advice and recommendations to the EPA Administrator through the Agricultural Counselor.”

The Committee meets at least twice a year.  Access copies of recommendation letters sent by the committee to EPA.