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Emile DeFelice

Contact Info: 

709 Woodrow Street, #220

Columbia, SC 29205

803-917-0794

happyhams@cawcawcreek.com                  

 

Short Biography:

Emile has been farming in South Carolina for about a dozen years, and has taken an active role in supporting and assisting other sustainable farmers throughout the Carolinas with Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. In 2006 he was Democratic nominee for South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture.  Emile's "Put Your State on Your Plate" campaign slogan was backed by his commitment to eat nothing but local South Carolina raised foods from July 2006 until election time. He has held positions of state director of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, chairman of the S.C. Food Policy Council and a member of the S.C. Rural Development Council.   

 

Primary Assets:  

small family farmer, incredibly charismatic, state ag and rural policy experience 

 

Primary Liabilities:   

 

Would be a great Ag Secretary because:

 

John Ikerd

Contact Info: 

5121 S. Brock Rodgers Road 

Columbia, MO 65201 

573-874-0408

JEIkerd@centurytel.net

 

Short Biography:  

Raised on a small dairy farm in southwest Missouri. Educated at the University of Missouri with BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Agricultural Economics. Worked three years with Wilson Foods in Kansas City, MO, Atlanta, GA, and Detroit, MI between BS and MS degree work. Worked in Extension Agricultural Economics positions at North Carolina State University, 1970-76 and Oklahoma State University, 1976-84 and was Head of Extension Agricultural Economics, University of Georgia, 1984-89. Returned to the University of Missouri 1989, under a cooperative agreement with U.S.D.A, to provide state and national leadership for research and education programs related to sustainable agriculture. Retired and received appointment as Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics at University of Missouri Columbia College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources  on February 1, 2000. 

 

National Sustainable Agriculture Projects with USDA SARE Program

     1988-91: Farm Decision Supports Systems for Sustainable Agriculture (PLANETOR)  

     1991-93: Sustainable Agriculture Education Council (SA Professional Development Program) 

     1992-94: Addressing the Quality of Life Dimension of Sustainable Agriculture 

     1993-95: Regional Liaison-South and Northeast- SA Professional Development Program 

     1994-99: State Co-coordinator of SA Professional Development Program for Missouri 

 

Primary Assets: 

state and national ag policy experience, economics background,  authority on sustainable ag

 

Primary Liabilities:   

 

John Ikerd would be a great Secretary of Agriculture because he combines the passion and compassion of a true Christian activist with a deep understanding of the economic, political, and ecological forces that are shaping agriculture today. He is a man of unquestioned integrity and insightful vision who has dedicated his life to building the Local Food Revolution.

 

A.G. Kawamura

Contact Info:   Short Biography:   Primary Assets:   Primary Liabilities:    Would be a great Ag Secretary because:

 

Fred Kirschenmann

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

#209 Curtis Hall

Iowa State University

Ames, IA 50011-3711

515-294-5588

leopold1@iastate.edu

 

Fred is the largest biodynamic farmer in the United States with a 3,500 acre farm in North Dakota. He is former Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and a Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Iowa State. He is the moving force behind the Farmers in the Middle Initiative and the Association of Family Farms, two pioneering efforts to save mid-size family farms from destruction by industrial agriculture. He has worked as a grassroots organizer of farmers and consumers. More important, Fred is a deeply thoughtful activist, a person who brings an understanding of the land together with ideas from many sectors, creating a personal and professional synergy that inspires and leads change. He would be a remarkable Secretary of Agriculture.

 

Primary Assets:Strong, creative, understanding and wise leadership.

Primary Liabilities:  Monsanto and Cargill aren't his biggest fans.

 

Fred Kirschenmann would be a great Ag Secretary because he will bring together the rich American tradition of agricultural populism with the emerging consumer consensus on food to help build a healthy, local food system for our nation, one free of dependence on imported petroleum and global corporate dominance.

 

Francis Moore Lappe

Contact Info:   Short Biography:   Primary Assets:   Primary Liabilities:    Would be a great Ag Secretary because:

 

Marion Nestle

Contact Info:  Short Biography:   Primary Assets:   Primary Liabilities:    Would be a great Ag Secretary because:

 

Mark Ritchie  

Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State

180 State Office Building

#100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard

St. Paul, MN 55155

651-215-1440

:  

Mark Ritchie "got it" about the importance of agriculture in our future before most everyone else in my generation of activists. I remember sitting in a meeting organized by Harriet Barlow after the 1988 Presidential Election and listening to Mark describe how farmers were fighting the globalization of the food system. He was way ahead of many of us.

 

Mark grew up in Nevada, Iowa, the son of an extension agent. He lived in the Bay Area of California, raising chickens on a small farm and participating in the Alice Water's local food revolution in the 1970s. But Mark has made his real impact on innovation and policy in agriculture. He founded and is past present of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. He founded and ran a for-profit Fair Trade Company - Peace Coffee. He has been Executive Director of the Center for Rural Studies at the University of Vermont, President of the Organic Buyers and Growers Association, Chair of the International Forum on Food and Agriculture, and has served on the U.S. Trade Representative's Trade and Environmental Policy Advisory Committee. Mark is currently Secretary of State of Minnesota, an elected office. In 2004, he headed up the November 2nd campaign that lead the participation of non-profits in the Presidential election that year. 

 

But beyond the deep and impressive resume, Mark is one of the smartest, toughest, and strategically wise advocates for sustainable agriculture alive today. He combines an operating political awareness with a vision for where we need to be in the future. We would be lucky to have him as Secretary of Agriculture. 

Gus Schumacher

Contact Info:  

Short Biography: Gus Schumacher, Jr., a consultant to the Kellogg Foundation, is the former Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Prior to his appointment as Under Secretary, he was the Administrator of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. Before coming to USDA, Mr. Schumacher served at the World Bank.  From 1985 to 1990 he was the Massachusetts Commissioner of Food and Agriculture. More recently, Gus was a co-creator of  the website "Resources for Farmers Markets". As MA Ag Commissioner, Gus originated a coupon program making fresh food at farmers markets available to seniors and low income mothers that has since evolved into the successful, nationwide WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Programs.

 

Primary Assets:   Experience with both foreign and domestic agricultural affairs, familiarity with the USDA bureaucracy, understanding in the realm of small family farms and direct marketers as well as food security issues and farmland preservation.

 

Primary Liabilities:   

Would be a great Ag Secretary because:

 

John Tester 

Contact Info:   Short Biography:   Primary Assets:   Primary Liabilities:    Would be a great Ag Secretary because: