During the American Seed Trade Association annual convention committees meet to set policies for the organization for the coming year. One of those is the phytosanitary committee. I visited with Darrell Maddox, Endless Sky Partners, about the work of this committee that he used to chair. Darrell says the committee works with USDA-APHIS to facilitate trade. They work with seed …
Educating for Ag Choice
During the 2012 American Seed Trade Association annual convention I met Chuck Larson, Executive Director, Americans for Choice and Competition in Agriculture. Although I had heard of this newly formed organization I didn’t know much about it until we had a chance to sit down and chat. It appears that the main focus of the group is to influence an …
ASTA Roger Krueger Scholarship Winner
Kansas State graduate student, Rodrigo Pedrozo, received the American Seed Trade Association Roger Krueger Memorial Scholarship during last week’s convention. He’s seen here (right) with Jim Tobin, Monsanto, who presented the award. The scholarship endowment, established in 2008 by the American Seed Research Foundation, is in honor of Roger Krueger who devoted his professional career to seeds and advocating the …
Learning More About ASTA
The President and CEO for the American Seed Trade Association is Andy Lavigne. We sat down for a visit during the organization’s 129th Annual Convention so I could learn more about ASTA. To start with Andy says that having the convention back in Washington, DC and coupling it with an opportunity to visit with legislators on Capitol Hill has been …
Sonny Beck Receives ASTA Lifetime Member Award
The American Seed Trade Association bestowed a Lifetime Honorary Member Award on Lawrence “Sonny” Beck, Beck’s Hybrids, during their annual convention. Pictured is Sonny on the left receiving his award from Mike Gumina. The award is one of the highest awards given out by the Association and is in recognition of untiring service to the Association as well as the …
Mark Seem Receives ASTA DSA
A second Distinguished Service Award was presented during the 2012 American Seed Trade Association convention. Receiving the award is Mark Seem, LG Seeds/AgReliant Genetics, LLC (left) from now past ASTA Chairman, Mike Gumina during the closing banquet. The ASTA Distinguished Service Award recognizes those who have made significant contributions to the Association and the seed industry and Mark has done …
ASTA Takes Capitol Steps
The American Seed Trade Association closed out their convention gala banquet with entertainment from the Capitol Steps. These folks just keep getting better and they were hilarious. It was pass the gavel time to a new Chairman for the association and also a time to recognize a number of people. Now past Chair, Mike Gumina, Pioneer Hi-Bred, welcomed new ASTA …
Future Giant of the Seed Industry
She’s a Future Giant of the Seed Industry. She’s Cassie Misch, JGL, Inc. pictured on the right with Paige Collette, Seed World. Cassie is the recipient of the Future Giant of the Seed Industy award which is a joint effort of Seed World magazine and the American Seed Trade Association’s Future Seed Executives (FuSE) Committee. The Future Giants of the …
Seed Industry Government Relations
Elected officials who want to understand the seed industry need to contact Leslie Cahill, American Seed Trade Association vice president of government affairs. Leslie is in this photo of ASTA members meeting with Congressman Collin Peterson earlier this week. Leslie put together a great Storm the Hill program for members during a busy week that included a Senate passed Farm …
ASTA Looks at State/Federal Political Issues
The American Seed Trade Association holds a number of general sessions during its annual convention in addition to committee meetings. One of these sessions focused on the issues driving politics in the state and federal arenas. Participating were (l-r) Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey who is currently President of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture; U.S. Department …