KEE NAMED NEW NASDA PRESIDENT

News Date September 29, 2009

Delaware Secretary of Agriculture Ed Kee was selected as NASDA President for 2009-2010 during NASDA’s annual meeting in Montgomery, Alabama.

Kee was appointed as Delaware’s Secretary of Agriculture by Governor Jack Markell in January 2009.  He began his professional agricultural career as the farm manager at Nassau Orchards in Lewes, Delaware.  Ed Kee was appointed the Kent County Agricultural Agent for the University of Delaware in 1978, and moved to State Vegetable Crops Specialist, working out of Georgetown, Delaware.  In 2004, Kee was appointed as the Extension Agricultural Program Leader.  He served as the Vegetable Crop Specialist and the Ag Program Leader.  Kee retired from the University in 2008 and worked for Hanover Foods Corporation as Director of Agriculture.

Kee is a nationally and internationally recognized expert on vegetable science.  He has authored or co-authored more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed scholarly journals.  These include articles published in the fields of horticulture, vegetable science, agricultural engineering, agricultural economics, history and civil rights.  Kee has published or lectured on agricultural or historical topics across the United States and in Mexico, Germany, Hungary, Canada, and the Ukraine.  He is the author of Saving Our Harvest: The History of the Mid-Atlantic Canning and Freezing Industry.  Kee has also written numerous articles for the commercial agricultural press, including a monthly column for The Delmarva Farmer.

Kee, a sixth generation Delawarean, lives on a farm near Lincoln City with his wife Debbie.  Debbie and Ed have been married for 32 years.  They have two grown daughters, who live in Michigan and Pennsylvania.  Kee succeeds Alabama Commissioner Ron Sparks. 

Other changes in leadership include Utah Commissioner Leonard Blackham selected as First Vice president, Iowa Secretary Bill Northey as Second Vice President, and Oklahoma Commissioner Terry Peach as Secretary-Treasurer.  Other members elected to NASDA's Board of Directors include the presidents of the four NASDA regions:  Maine Agriculture Commissioner Seth Bradstreet representing the Northeastern region (NEASDA); U.S. Virgin Islands Agriculture Commissioner Louis Petersen from the Southern region (SASDA); Ohio Agriculture Director Robert Boggs representing the Midwestern region (MASDA); and Montana Agriculture Director Ron de Yong representing the Western region (WASDA).  Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Gene Hugoson will serve as the at-large representative and Commissioner Sparks remains on the board as immediate past president.  (Contact: Stephen Haterius)