 Sonia Jimenez
Deputy Administrator
As AMS Specialty
Crops Program (SCP) looks forward to serving you in 2018,
I’ve been reflecting on the importance of our industry partnerships and the
collaborative efforts to enhance our services for you. At the suggestion of industry leaders, the
AMS Specialty Crops Inspection Service (SCI) Stakeholder Outreach Initiative
was created to engage with you in providing insights, perspective, and input on
strategies to strengthen and enhance the USDA’s specialty crops inspection
program and services. By soliciting
ideas on ways we can adapt our service offerings, enhance our technology,
strengthen our financial position, and improve our staffing efficiencies, SCI
will continue to adapt to the industry’s needs.
Our
initial virtual meeting with industry leadership identified both strengths and
weaknesses of the program. Open and
frank discussions acknowledged assets we should preserve and protect, and
services we should not change. At the
same time, we discussed the challenges to develop more efficient business processes
and services to keep SCI nimble and responsive to the ever-changing needs of
the produce industry. Future meetings
will focus on identifying opportunities and threats to the produce industry and
ways to strengthen and enhance the SCI program and services to respond to these
challenges.
In
this issue of the newsletter, we highlight a few unique programs and services that are important this holiday season to
specific specialty crops industries. We also feature an article outlining the USDA
AMS recruitment efforts, introducing you to a recent intern’s experience in our
Marketing
Order and Agreement Division (MOAD). Finally, you’ll learn about how USDA’s Good
Agricultural Program (GAP) helped overcome a challenge in the
tea industry.
On
behalf of all SCP employees, allow me to extend to you best wishes for a happy
holiday season and our sincere thanks for allowing us to be of assistance in
2017.
|
 Peter Wood, Abigail Campos, & Jen Dougherty
Happy Holidays! Did you know AMS Specialty Crops Program
(SCP) provides many services that help make your holidays special? The folks at SCP serve a very diverse
customer base. Find out who we serve from paper and packaging industry to
cranberries producers to Christmas trees growers.
Jen
Dougherty
Specialty Crops Inspection
In
March 2017, the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce reached out
to AMS’s Specialty Crops Program on behalf of JD Farms, of Poplarville, Miss.,
the parent company of Pearl River Tea. MDAC staff wanted to know if the agency
could perform a USDA Good
Agricultural Practices (GAP) audit on fresh tea
leaves, a first for AMS.
SCP
supports producers of agricultural products from almonds to Christmas trees and
lumber to zucchini with a variety of services that help ensure the quality of
crops and help farmers get their crops to market. GAP is a voluntary program offered
to the fruit and vegetable industry that verifies the participant has taken
proactive measures to reduce the risk of contamination by adhering to generally
recognized industry best practices.
 Photo
Caption: Don Van de Werken, one of the owners of Pearl River Tea, inspects the
tea producing Camellia Sinensis bushes on JD Farms to determine if they are
ready to harvest.
Karen Comfort
Deputy Associate Administrator
AMS strategically
positions itself to compete in the job market for the best, brightest and most diverse
talent. AMS’s senior leadership
understands the key to hiring top diverse talent is strategically influencing
the applicant pool for the Agency’s job opportunities. As a result, AMS has done a number of things
well and has started to receive the fruits of its labor.
In 2015, AMS started
holding Pathways Programs Onsite Application Acceptance Recruitment Events at a
variety of institutions, including Minority Serving Institutions. This allowed
us to take on-the-spot application packages for AMS job opportunities, and
interview and select candidates in as little as two weeks. Under the USDA Pathways Programs, Federal agencies recruit students under the
Internship, Recent Graduate, or President Management Fellowship Program. We
have also seen a significant increase in students attending our events in large
part due to our outreach efforts using Twitter and Facebook.
In 2016, AMS completed
two important initiatives. It rolled out its Agricultural Commodity Grader (ACG) Apprenticeship
Program, providing 12 months
of training and development in a mission-critical AMS occupation and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with
Gallaudet University to increase the number of qualified college graduates,
including individuals with disabilities, who apply for full-time employment and
internships with AMS.
In 2017, AMS increased the number of summer
interns acquired through third-party organizations such as the Hispanic
Association of Colleges and Universities, the Conference on Asian Pacific
American Leadership, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
In 2018, AMS will enter into two new cooperative relationships -- one
with the Tribal Colleges and Universities in the Southwest, and the other with
California State Polytechnic University Pomona.
AMS is committed to these efforts as part of our ongoing strategy to
identify, recruit and hire top, diverse talent to help fulfill the Agency’s
mission and to serve our industry partners, stakeholders and the public.
|
