New Queen Crowned | New President | New Executive Director

NWA Announces New President at Annual Convention
Brent Jackson, President and owner of Jackson’s Farming Co., Autryville, N.C., accepted the gavel from former President Jody Land, President of Raymon J. Land Watermelon Sales, Branford, on February 27th at the National Watermelon Association’s national convention held in Orlando, Florida.
Jackson Farming Company, founded in 1981, is a family-owned and operated business, located near Fayetteville, NC. They grow, pack, ship, and broker fresh fruits and vegetables year round.
Jackson said the current membership of the association is 703, made up of growers, sales agencies, brokers, and numerous affiliate industries such as seed, box and bin packaging, transportation, and more. He emphasized the need for a steady increase during his two-year tenure. “Our membership is up 17 from last year, but we need more,” Jackson said. “I’m challenging each regional and state chapter to increase their membership by 10 in the next year.” Jackson said the association needs to increase its membership to about 2,000 in order to have a stronger voice in Washington, D.C.

The NWA has made agricultural research its top priority and hopes to become strong enough in the nation’s capital to obtain the necessary funding to achieve its goals. Topping the list is $1.18 million for disease research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Agriculture Research Service’s South Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Lane, Okla.

The association also hopes to promote itself more through its queen program, using the national and regional association winners as spokeswomen for the watermelon industry.
Funding for the queen program and the remainder of the NWA budget comes through the group’s annual auction of watermelon loads and other watermelon-related items at the convention. This year the event raised a net of $312,000 mainly on 54 donated loads of watermelons that were auctioned. “It was the second-best auction we’ve ever had,” said Arnold Mack, owner of McMelon Inc., Lake Wales, Florida, and chairman of the association’s auction committee.
The National Watermelon Association has been in existence since 1914, and has their corporate offices in Plant City, Florida. The purpose of the Association is to promote the best interests of the Watermelon Industry from production to consumption by constantly seeking improvements in the growing, grading, handling, transportation, distribution and sale of watermelon.