Sacramento, CA (March 30, 2021) - From the Pacific Seed Association, a big thank you to all of you who joined us on our first virtual meeting celebrating the 95th Annual Pacific Seed Association Convention, which was held Feb. 17. On behalf of the PSA Board of Directors, I would like to thank each and every one of you who contributed to this event. Additionally, the PSA sincerely thanks our sponsors for supporting our mission and making the Annual Convention possible in these challenging times.

President Carolyn Lockwood, Corvallis Seed Services, led an outstanding program of event. The presentations were informative and timely on issues facing the industry such as COVID, economics, legislation, and seed treatment. We were fortunate to have a line-up of topnotch speakers including:

Daniel A. Sumner, Ph.D, UC Davis who addressed: COVID and Trade Economics. Dan is the Frank H. Buck, Jr. Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis and the Director of the University of California Agricultural Issues Center. Dr. Sumner teaches an innovative course on the Economics of Agricultural Sustainability and directs an extensive outreach and applied research program on public issues related to agriculture.

Dale Krolikowski, Germains Seed Technology addressed: new seed cleaning technologies, treatments and packaging information. Dale is the Head of Operations and Research where he currently oversees an R&D team dedicated to developing new seed treatments and technologies for the horticultural industry. In addition, he is also responsible for the manufacturing group, and quality control departments.

Pat Miller, is the Director of State Affairs for American Seed Trade Association. He gave an update on ASTA Federal and State legislative issues. Pat works with state and regional seed industry associations, monitors seed-related state initiatives and assists with state’s legislative, regulatory and grassroots activities. He also directs ASTA’s Seed Advocate program, informing and mobilizing seed industry activists.

Annual Meeting

President Lockwood call the Annual Meeting to order and called upon EVP, Chris Zanobini, who provided an overview of 2020’s activities and a sound financial report of the state of the Association.

Reports were also provided by Mindy Duerst, chair of the Communications Committee and PSA Cares Committee; Legislative chair, Sam Cable.; Turf Seed chair, Bill Merrigan; Membership chair, Kathy Hutton, including the approval of new members and the scholarship award announcement by Scholarship Committee Chair, Nicole Hostert.

This year’s scholarship winners included: Rebecca Fleming, Jonah Hernandez, Marilen Nampiija and Katie Webb.

The Nominating Committee Chair, Martin Luttrell briefed members on the committee report. Due to COVID-19, the committee recommended to the board to renew the current officers and directors to serve another year term. The recommendation was approved by the board of directors per the bylaws. We would like to thank these individuals for their time and service to the Association.

New this year was a virtual golf tournament “fund-raiser” to support the scholarship program. Congratulations to team 2 who came in 1st place – Grant Baglietto and Martin Luttrell, 2nd place team 4, Rob Smith, Mindy Duerst and Amy Jenness; 3rd place team 3 (how apropos’) Carolyn Lockwood and Dean Browning and 4th place team 1, Kathy Hutton and Dwayne Alford. Thank you all for playing along – see you on the actual greens next year.

Finally, last but not least, President Carolyn Lockwood had the privilege of announcing the 2020 Person of the Year award. This year’s honoree was Mike Ingham, he was recognized for his dedication and leadership to the PSA. Congratulations to Mike for a well-deserved award.

Again, I want to extend a heart-felt thank you to our sponsors and all our members for your commitment to making this virtual event so successful.

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