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Featured
Speakers
Our Featured
Speakers are listed according to their position on the conference schedule.
| 7th
Annual National Value-Added Ag Conference Co-Chairs |
Deb
Conley, Conference Co-Chair
Executive Director of the Indiana Cooperative Development Center |
 Debora
joined the ICDC in November of 2005 as the Center's first director.
Deb has a background in community and economic development. Most recently
she was the Community Development Specialist for the Indiana Rural
Community Assistance Program and prior to that held the position of
Community Development Program Coordinator for Elkhart County Indiana.
She holds an MPA from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs
at Indiana University. |
Jerry
Nelson,
Conference Co-Chair
Purdue New Ventures Educator, Agricultural
Entrepreneurship |
 Jerry
has worked for the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service
for 26 years. He served as the Purdue Extension Agriculture &
Natural Resources Educator for Knox County for 24 of those years.
Jerry accepted the newly created position of Purdue New Ventures
Educator with Statewide responsibilities two years ago. He also serves
as Co-Chair of the new Ventures Team which is comprised of State
Extension Specialists and Field Extension Staff. The New Ventures
Team works with agricultural entrepreneurs across the State of Indiana.
Prior
to working for Purdue University, Jerry was employed by the University
of Illinois Extension Service and also taught Agriculture at Illinois
Valley Community College and Vocational Agricultural at Charlotte
High School in Punta Gorda, Florida. Jerry has served as President
of the Indiana Extension Educators Association and also Chairman
of the Ag Section of the Association.
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"New
Challenges and Opportunities in Rural Development...
and the Implications for Value-Added Agriculture" |
Mark
Drabenstott, Conference Keynote Speaker
Vice President & Director - Center for the Study
of Rural America |
|
 Mark
Drabenstott is a seasoned observer of the rural economy who has gained
national and international recognition for his economic analysis
and policy insights. Mark joined the Bank in 1981 and was named a
vice president in 1990. Throughout his career at the Bank, Mark has
been an ardent observer of the leading issues facing the rural economy
and food and agriculture sector, publishing more than a hundred articles
and editing five books. Mark is a frequent speaker before industry,
university, and public policy audiences throughout the nation. On
more than a dozen occasions, he has testified before Congress on
rural and agricultural policy issues.
In October of 1998, Mark was named Director of the Center for the
Study of Rural America. The Center serves as the Federal Reserve's
focal point for research on rural and agricultural issues. Mark also
provides leadership to a number of national organizations. He is
currently a member of the U.S. delegation to an OECD committee that
tracks global trends in rural issues. He is a past director of the
National Bureau of Economic Research and he has also advised the
World Bank.
View Presentation
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Dinner
Speaker,
Bringing an address from the Indiana Department of Agriculture |
Andy
Miller,
Agriculture Director, State of Indiana |
On April 25, 2005, Andy Miller became
Indiana’s first Agriculture Director when Governor Mitch Daniels
signed H.B. 1008 into law. That law created the Indiana State
Department of Agriculture, and until this year, Indiana had been one
of only four states without a standalone department of agriculture.
Andy wasted
no time after the department was created. In May, he joined the Lt.
Governor in rolling out Possibilities Unbound: The Plan for 2025,
Indiana Agriculture’s Strategic Plan over a 4 day, 10-stop statewide
tour that reached more than 900 people. This multi-year strategic
plan takes a hard look at where we are in Indiana agriculture and
charts a path for the future. The vision for the department is that
Indiana will be a global center for food and
agricultural innovation and commercialization.
Raised on a farm
in Waterloo, Indiana, Andy knows the importance of hard work.
Whether bailing hay or taking care of his 4-H animals, he always
rolled up his sleeves and got the job done.
Andy has a wealth
of practical business experience. Andy earned a degree in
agricultural economics from Purdue University in 1992. Andy received
the G.A. Ross Outstanding Graduating Senior Award for his academic
excellence, leadership, and service to the university.
Before becoming
Indiana’s Agriculture Director, Andy worked for Weaver Popcorn, a
75-year-old Indiana business. Prior to joining Weaver, Miller
created Nature’s Entrée, a frozen food company in Indianapolis. Andy
also worked for ConAgra, Nabisco, and Procter & Gamble. While
managing some of America’s favorite brands like Folgers, Duncan
Hines, and Parkay, Andy learned to assess issues and chart winning
strategies.
Andy learned the
concept of service at a very young age. He is a 10-year 4-H member.
At Purdue, he served in many capacities including President of the
Interfraternity Council. Andy has also worked with many inner city
outreach programs. |
|
Friday's
Speaker,
Bringing greetings from USDA Rural Development - Indiana |
Robert
White,
USDA Rural Development Director
|
 Robert
(Bob) White’s background in rural and agricultural policy issues
began with his entry into a family deeply committed to rural life.
While continuing to manage the family farm, Bob began a seven year
role with the Farm Credit System. Moving from a Loan Officer to working
in Special Accounts and finally to a Branch Manager in Rochester,
Indiana Bob realized that many of the issues facing rural areas were
also the same issues facing our urban counterparts. During this time,
Bob achieved Professional Status as a Farm Manager and Rural Appraiser
with the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers.
In 1993, White
became the first full time Executive Director of the Indiana Association
of Soil and Water Conservation Districts and Executive Director of
the Leadership 2000 program. In 1996, White joined the staff of the
Indiana Farm Bureau (IFB) as Director of Natural Resources where
he experienced the grass roots development of policy on the local,
state and national level. In 1998, at the request of Senator Richard
Lugar, White moved to Washington DC to become a Senior Policy Staff
member of the U. S. Senate Agriculture Committee, chaired by the
Senator. In 2001, Senator Lugar nominated White to serve as the Indiana
State Director of the USDA, Rural Development. President Bush appointed
White in the summer of 2001.
Bob
White still manages his fifth generation family farm and has paired
his rich rural heritage and interest in public policy into an individual
who not only respects and nurtures the land on which he was raised
but actively participates in the development and interpretation of
policy that affects rural Hoosiers. |
|
"The
3-Legged Stool of Entrepreneurship:
Creating a Successful Entrepreneurship Development Strategy" |
Deb
Markley,
Co-Director – Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
|
Deborah
M. Markley is Co-Director of the Rural Policy Research Institute’s
Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, a national research and policy
center. Her focus within the Center is practice-driven research
and evaluation of best models for entrepreneurship development in
rural places. Prior to her work with the Center, she was the
Chair of the Rural Policy Research Institute’s Equity Capital
Initiative and completed a national study of nontraditional venture
capital institutions. Her research has also included case studies
of entrepreneurial support organizations, evaluation of state industrial
extension programs, and consideration of the impacts of changing
banking markets on small business finance. She has extensive
experience conducting field-based survey research projects and has
conducted focus groups and interviews with rural bankers, entrepreneurs,
business service providers, venture capitalists, small manufacturers,
and others. Her research has been presented in academic journals,
as well as to national public policy organizations and Congressional
committees.
Dr.
Markley received her PhD. in agricultural economics from Virginia
Tech in 1984 and has held faculty and research positions at the University
of Tennessee, the University of Massachusetts, and Purdue University.
Markley
#2 - View
Presentation
Markley
#3 - View
Presentation
Deborah
M. Markley
Co-Director
Center
for Rural Entrepreneurship
72 Cedar
Hills Circle
Chapel
Hill, NC 27514-1620
Voice
919.932.7762
Fax 919.932.5367
Email: dmarkley@nc.rr.com
www.ruraleship.org |
Sam
Cordes,
LCD Program Leader and Assistant Director |
|
Sam
Cordes is responsible for Extension's Leadership and Community Development
Program. He works with county-based Extension personnel, campus faculty
and staff and external partners to support educational programs and
activities that help to create strong and vibrant communities and
neighborhoods. Five areas of emphasis are: Entrepreneurship, Planning
and Visioning, Leadership and Civic Engagement, Learning Centers/Workforce
Development, and Community and Public Policy Engagement. Cordes also
serves as Co-Director of the Center for Regional Development. |
Markley
& Cordes - View
Presentation
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"Understanding
the Entrepreneur:
How to Profile your Client Base for Maximum Success" |
Christopher
Peterson,
Director – Nowlin Chair of Consumer-Responsive
Agriculture
|
 Dr.
H. Christopher (Chris) Peterson is the Homer Nowlin Chair of Consumer-Responsive
Agriculture and professor of Agricultural Economics at Michigan State
University. Dr. Peterson's mission as the Nowlin Chair is to provide
research, teaching, and outreach leadership to university and industry
efforts focused on the development and marketing of differentiated,
consumer-oriented products based on agricultural goods. In early 2003,
he was named Director of the newly created MSU Product Center for
Agriculture and Natural Resources. Dr. Peterson has a well-established
research program in strategic management encompassing projects and
published articles in such areas as knowledge management, vertical
coordination strategy, globalization of agribusiness firms, cooperative
business strategy, cooperative finance, and applications of scenario
planning. He is a recognized expert in the use of the case method
for both teaching and research. Dr.
Peterson is a recipient of the 1998 Michigan State University Teacher-Scholar
Award and the 1992 Edwin Nourse Doctoral Dissertation Award from
the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. He currently serves
on the board of the International Food and Agribusiness Management
Association and is an officer of the Agribusiness Economics and Management
Section of the American Association of Agricultural Economics. He
also represents MSU on the Western Regional Coordinating Committee
(WRC-72) for Research on Agribusiness Competitiveness and the Northcentral
Regional Coordinating Committee (NCR 194) on Cooperatives.
View Presentation |
|
"Creating
and Analyzing the Business Position:
The AICC Business Planner" |
Joan
Fulton,
Professor
|
 Dr.
Joan Fulton joined the Purdue Agricultural Economics faculty in July
1997 working in the areas of teaching, extension and research in
marketing and agribusiness. Joan teaches undergraduate classes in
futures and options, cooperatives, vertical coordination, and food
marketing management. In addition, she teaches marketing and price
analysis at the graduate level. Her research examines the impact
of alternative organizational structures and has involved extensive
work with agricultural cooperatives.
Joan’s research program examines the broad question of how
the organizational structure of markets and businesses affects efficiency,
equity, return and risk. Specific examples of this research include:
factors affecting the success/failure of joint venture and strategic
alliance agreements, how alternative organizational and ownership
structures allow producers to take advantage of value added business
opportunities, the return and risk trade-offs associated with alternative
business structures such as the New Generation Cooperatives, and
questions of structural change through mergers, acquisitions, joint
ventures and strategic alliances.
Joan
is co-director for the Agricultural Innovation and Commercialization
Center, and active in the development and delivery of programs through
the Center for Food and Agricultural Business.
View Presentation
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"Ideas
and Innovations!
Creating Ideas that You Can Profit From" |
Tom
Kalchik,
Associate Director – Product Center for Ag
and Natural Resources
|
 After
graduating, Kalchik returned to the family farming operation in partnership
with his brother. He left the partnership in 1973 and joined the
staff of an agricultural trade association for the cherry industry.
After three years, he moved to Southwest Michigan with Pro-Fac Cooperative
and Curtice Burns Foods, now known as Birds Eye Foods, a diversified
food processing company. He spent twenty years with that organization
in various member relations and administrative position, moving to
the company’s corporate offices in Rochester, NY in 1983.
He
joined Michigan State University Extension in February 2000 as part
of its value added initiative for Michigan fruit and vegetable crops.
He was named the Associate Director of the new MSU Product Center
for Agriculture and Natural Resources on September 1, 2003. Kalchik
has been active in several government affairs, public relations,
environmental and educational programs with the National Council
of Farmer Cooperatives. He is a 1995 graduate the University of Missouri
Graduate Institute on Cooperative Leadership.
View Presentation
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| "Community
Food Systems: Featuring Success Stories of Institutional and Direct-to-Consumer
Ventures" |
Susan
Smalley,
Specialist in Sustainable Agriculture, Michigan State
University
|
 Susan
Smalley works as a Michigan State University (MSU) Extension Specialist
in Sustainable Agriculture. She is a member of the C.S. Mott Group
for Sustainable Food Systems at MSU, where her work focuses primarily
on two of the groups overall goals helping to make small and medium
scale family farms viable and dispersing animals across the landscape.
She serves as Michigan’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and
Education and small farm liaisons with USDA, and she has been working
extensively with Michigan Farmers Markets. She has also worked closely
with MSUs Product Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources and
its
cadre of ANR Innovation Counselors. Dr. Smalley has spent her
professional career with MSU Extension in roles including agent,
county director, regional supervisor, and program leader. Her education
at MSU includes degrees in home economics, adult education and extension
education. |
Mike
Hamm,
C.S. Mott Chair for Sustainable Agriculture |
 Dr.
Michael Hamm is the C. S. Mott Distinguished Professor of Sustainable
Agriculture at Michigan State University. Dr. Hamm is affiliated
with the Departments of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resources
Studies, Crop and Soil Sciences, and Food Science and Human Nutrition.
His appointment encompasses teaching, the Experiment Station and
Cooperative Extension. Prior to moving to MSU he was faculty member
at Rutgers University where he was co-founder and director of the
New Jersey Urban Ecology Program, an effort that brings together
individuals from diverse backgrounds to address sustainable food
systems in New Jersey. He has also been facilitator for the New Jersey
Cooperative Gleaning Network from 1998 to 2003 and the founding director
of the Cook Student Organic Farm from 1993 to 1998. He was board
member and board president of the Northeast Organic Farming Association
of New Jersey. He has done research in the areas of community food
security and community food systems. |
Mary
Hendrickson,
Co-Director of
the Food Circles Networking Project |
 Mary
Hendrickson, of Columbia, Mo., is the co-director of the Food Circles
Networking Project, an outreach program that links farmers and consumers
together in a local food system, at the University of Missouri. Her
interests include competition and concentration in the food system,
community food security, and cooperative and rural development.
Mary is also the associate director of the University
of Missouri’s Community Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture
Program located in the Department of Rural Sociology. She has helped
numerous agriculture groups with marketing strategies and cooperative
development, including Ozark Mountain Pork, LLC., a natural pork
cooperative. She also collaborated with Kansas and Missouri dairy
producers interested in alternative markets for milk. Mary served
as president of the Community
Food Security Coalition from 2001-2003. In 2002, she was appointed
by the City of Columbia to the Sustainable Food and Communities
Board of Directors. Mary is the recipient of the 2001 Cooperative
Service Award presented by the National Farmers Union. She also
received the Family Farm Leadership Award given by the Missouri
Farmers Union in 2001.
|
Levi
Huffman,
Producer, Value-Added Ag Entrepreneur |
 Levi
J. Huffman has been an agricultural producer since 1972 in Lafayette,
IN. Levi is a third generation farmer, and he and his wife, Norma,
are now farming with their two children in a diversified business.
Their son, Aaron, and his wife, Roberta have one daughter. Their
daughter, Sherilyn, and her husband, Jim Hawbaker, have twin sons.
The family business produces 9,000 head of hogs
a year in a farrow to finish operation. Corn, beans, and wheat compromise
the traditional crops. Vegetable crops grown are tomatoes and cabbage.
They are also expanding into fall ornamental crops such as Indian
corn, gourds, and mini pumpkins.
Levi
is active in his church and serves in various positions for the
Pork Producers. He is also a director of the county extension board
and has volunteered for numerous community projects.
|
Hollie
Hamel,
Allen Neighborhood Center
|
 Hollie
Hamel of Lansing’s Allen Neighborhood Center fosters the kind
of awareness that helps people enjoy community supported agriculture.
She has formed an informal partnership with Giving Tree Farm through
which the center provides its eastside community with nutrition information,
access to fresh produce, and opportunities for neighbors to experience
Giving Tree Farm first hand. And there's not another market like
it in the state. For one, there's the old-time atmosphere of a market
that draws mostly neighborhood residents, many of whom come by foot
or stroller. But more distinctively, it's the only farmers market
in Michigan that accepts food stamps. Hamel plans to extend the availability
of nutritious food in this urban area and get more people thinking
about what they put in their bodies and where it comes from. |
Bud
Beesley,
Jennings County Growers
|
Bio
& Picture coming soon... |
Richard
Adrian,
Jennings County Growers
|
Bio
& Picture coming soon... |
|
"Agritourism:
Economic Impacts and the Marriage of Ag and Tourism" |
James
Maetzold,
National Alternative Enterprises and Agritourism
Leader
|
James
Maetzold has served as the National Alternative Enterprises and
Agritourism Leader for the past 5 years. He was born and raised
on a small grains and livestock farm in North Dakota. He have been
a Federal employee for over 39 years. He began his career in the
US Army followed by two years as county extension agent in North
Dakota. Following graduate school in agricultural economics at North
Dakota State University and University of California, Davis, he
has worked in Washington,D.C., since 1969. He has had the opportunity
to work for the Economic Research Service, Farmers Cooperative Service,
Farmers Home Administration, Executive Office of the President,
and the Natural Resources Conservation Service for the last 22 years.
He worked on the Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act for 17
years.
View Presentation
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Jim
Casper
|
Bio
& Picture coming soon... |
John
Pike,
Extension Educator - University of Illinois Extension
|
 John
Pike is an economic development educator with University of Illinois
Extension. Both his master's and bachelor's degrees are in agribusiness
economics from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Pike specializes
in alternative agriculture enterprise development, value-added agriculture,
and agritourism. |
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"Trials
and Tribulations of Large Scale Start-Ups:
Trends and Activities in Larger Value-Added Ag Ventures" |
Dr.
Gerald Ely,
State Cooperative Specialist for Pennsylvania USDA
Rural Development
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Harley
Seitsema,
Chairman, Board of Directors, Michigan Turkey Producers
Cooperative
|
 Harley
Sietsema, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Michigan Turkey Producers,
owns Sietsema Farms and is a partner in seven different business
entities that currently produce annually 1,250,000 tom turkeys, 14,600
sows, 340,000 market hogs, 2 feed mills and hardware store. Upon
graduating in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics
and Business Education, he worked for 13 years in the U.S. Treasury
Department. He was a Revenue Officer, Collection Division for two
years, a Revenue Agent, Audit Division for seven years and a Special
Agent, Criminal Investigations Division for four years. In 1979 he
resigned from the U.S. Treasury Department and started Sietsema Farms.
Harley is a member of Michigan Allied Poultry
Industries, Inc. and has served as President of this organization.
He is a member of the Allendale Chamber of Commerce, past director
of Vriesland Grower Cooperative. He is also currently serving on
the Board of Directors for the Michigan Pork Producers Association
and past Board Director with First Michigan Bank of Zeeland, MI.
He serves as an Agricultural Consultant to the Loan Board of Macatawa
Bank and is a member of the Michigan Department of Agriculture Animal
Initiative Committee and the America Farm Bureau’s Poultry
Meat Advisory Committee. He is a member and past Deacon and Elder
of the Allendale First Christian Reformed Church.
|
Laura
Powers,
Cooperative Development Specialist, Kentucky Center
for Cooperative Development
|
 Laura
Powers, Cooperative Development Specialist with the Kentucky Center
for Cooperative Development, began at the Center in September 2003.
She has both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree in Agricultural
Economics from the University of Kentucky. At KCCD, Laura works closely
with agricultural cooperatives in business planning, financial statement
development, and organizes educational opportunities for cooperative
managers and boards of directors. Laura came to the Center with over
5 years experience of state farm management extension work through
the University of Kentucky. |
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"Links
Between Renewable Energy and Agriculture:
Now and in the Future" |
James
R. Fischer, Ph.D., P.E.
Senior Technical Advisor (Academe) – Board
of Directors
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department
of Energy
|
 Jim
Fischer’s working knowledge of universities, agriculture, and
renewable and energy efficient technologies provides him with unique
insights on building synergistically public/private sector partnerships
in the agricultural-energy nexus. He has spoken extensively to public
and private sector audiences, including universities, government agencies,
private industries, and associations, as a result of his accomplishments
in agriculture, higher education, and energy leadership.
Jim grew up on a family crop and livestock farm in Missouri and owned
and operated a beef production business for 20 years. He also holds
a Ph.D. in agricultural engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
As a USDA research engineer in the 1970s, he published the design
specifications for the original integrated on-farm energy system.
Dr. Fischer has served at three universities — Missouri, Michigan
State, and Clemson. He has provided leadership for numerous national
organizations as well as led national visioning programs on the future
of state and land-grant universities. This has resulted in more responsive
research and outreach programs and curricula being developed that
address the critical issues affecting the nation, such as energy.
In
June 2003, he was appointed to the Board of Directors for the Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs of the U.S. Department of
Energy. As the Senior Technical Advisor (Academe) to Assistant Secretary
Garman, he develops innovative partnerships and models in collaboration
with universities, especially land grant universities, USDA, foundations
and the agricultural, industrial and business communities. He has
published more than 100 papers, contributed book chapters, testified
before Congress, and served on peer review panels and advisory boards.
View Presentation
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