At the Southern Peanut Growers Conference this week, I had a chance to meet up with one old friend I hadn’t seen in over 20 years – and one new friend that I knew but had never met.

Those of you in the ag journalism business may recognize this lady – formally the voice of the American Farm Bureau Federation once upon a time. You knew her then as Michele Brooks, but for the last 20 years she has been Michele Treptow, married to Rick Treptow of the Georgia Farm Bureau. Michele and I spent a few short minutes catching up and reminiscing about the “dot heads” at the 1985 annual AFBF meeting in Hawaii – and the infamous “Saturday night massacre” later that year when Chuck, Gary Cooper and I were forced out of Florida Farm Bureau after getting approval from the board to take their radio network independent. Ahh, the memories!!!

This gentlemen is known as “Mr. Peanut” in the Southeast and he wears many hats in the peanut industry. Tyron Spearman has been the peanut industry reporter for Southeast Agnet for at least as long as I have been reporting for them – but we had never met until this meeting. It was a great pleasure to meet him and get a chance to chat. He is extremely well respected in the peanut industry.

The SPGC was one of the very best conferences I have ever had the pleasure of attending. The agenda allowed for free afternoon time on the beach, the general sessions were very informative and well attended, the food was great, and the blues bash closing dinner and entertainment was great fun. This group is really a family and they obviously enjoy getting together at this great venue in Panama City every year. I will have more information about the conference in future posts. Not having internet access in my room was a drawback, but I had great access in the conference center.

Be sure to check out the Southern Peanut Growers Conference blog as well as the SPGC Conference Photo Album