The Washington State Potato Commission welcomed a new Commissioner and voted in its new leadership at the annual meeting on June 21, held in tandem with the Washington Potato & Onion Association summer meeting.
Rex Calloway, potato grower from Quincy, was elected by growers to District 1, Position 2 earlier this year and officially seated at the close of the meeting. A third generation farmer, Rex was born in Soap Lake. His grandfather had brought the family to the Columbia Basin from Oklahoma in 1952 and developed the first 160 acres. Rex’s dad started farming in the early 1960s and expanded the farm until his retirement in 2005. Rex graduated from WSU in 1982 with a degree in agronomy and after working for a couple of years, returned to the farm in 1985.
Besides growing potatoes for processing, Rex also grows alfalfa, field corn and wheat. He says his reason for becoming involved in the Commission is to give time and effort to help promote and defend the industry that has been his livelihood.
The new Commission chair is Frank Martinez from the Royal Slope. Born in Rio Bravo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, Frank first worked in ag alongside his father, picking crops from tomatoes and berries to cherries to cotton across the U.S. “It was an adventure” at the time, he says now.
A first generation grower, Frank started growing potatoes on his own with about 35 acres in 1981 after working his way up to irrigation supervisor for Skone and Connors. Until 1989 he partnered with Wiley Allred part-time. Frank’s Saddle View Farms now grows about 1,000 acres a year in fresh and processed potatoes and corn. Frank has been a member of the Commission since 2003, serving on most committees, working trade shows and even traveling with the Governor on trade missions.
Other members of the leadership team for the 2010-11 year are Bob Halvorson, 1st Vice Chair; Darrin Morrison, 2nd Vice Chair; Jared Balcom, Secretary; Angela Pixton, Treasurer. Ted Tschirky, Immediate Past Chair, also serves on the Executive Committee.
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