The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the appointment of Angie Snyder, a veteran Agricultural Marketing Service employee, as deputy administrator of AMS’ Cotton and Tobacco Program.

In her new role, she will be responsible for standardization, grading, and market news services for cotton, cotton-related products and tobacco and administering the producer-funded Cotton Research and Promotion program.

The position was previously held by Darryl Earnest, who served as deputy administrator of the Cotton and Tobacco Program for 18 years and retired from USDA in 2023 after 33 years of service, much of it spent on helping automate the classing of the U.S. cotton crop across its 10 regional cotton classing offices.

“Angie Snyder brings more than three decades of diverse experience working across agriculture, a long tenure with AMS, deep knowledge of the agency’s programs and extensive experience working with our customers across the country,” said AMS Administrator Bruce Summers.

“During her time with the agency, she has engaged with the spectrum of AMS customers – producers, processors, packers, importers and merchandisers. I am so grateful that Angie will serve as deputy administrator for the Cotton and Tobacco program, bringing her impressive track record of creating efficiencies and modernizing services to the role.”

Previous assignments

In January 2023, Angie was tapped to rebuild and direct the Agency’s budget office, he said. Prior to that, she served as the associate deputy administrator of the AMS Fair Trade Practices Program, overseeing Packers and Stockyards, the national bioengineered food disclosure standard, country-of-origin labeling, warehouse and commodity management, and the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act program.

She has also served as the AMS Livestock and Poultry Program associate deputy administrator and director of the Quality Assessment Division, where she managed nationwide voluntary grading services for meat, poultry and eggs and domestic and export auditing and accreditation services for the livestock, poultry, fish, and fruit and vegetable industries.

Among her other roles have been overseeing development of domestic and international standards, mandatory and voluntary market news reporting services, economic and statistical analysis services, food product specification development for Federal food and nutrition assistance programs, seed regulatory testing, and research and promotion programs.

She graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a B.A. in Biology.

National Cotton Council leaders welcomed Snyder to her new position during a visit to their office in Memphis on Jan. 31. “We look forward to working with Angie in her new role,” said Gary Adams, president and CEO of the Council.