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Speaker Biographies  Mike Adams, host, Agri-Talk
AgriTalk host Mike Adams was raised in a small farming community in central Illinois and grew up working on a grain and livestock farm. He served west-central Illinois on WLDS Radio in Jacksonville for 27 years primarily as Farm Director. Over the years Mike has covered state, national and international events including broadcasts from 10 countries while meeting four U.S. presidents, Pope John Paul II and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Mike took over as host of the nationally syndicated talk show, AgriTalk, in July of 2001. He facilitates a discussion about issues and ideas important to rural America, traveling over 100 days a year for remote broadcasts across the country. As host of AgriTalk, Adams conducts an annual ethanol pump tour as part of an ongoing promotion of renewable fuels and a hometown tour promoting the rich history and attributes of communities in rural America.
Adams is a voting member and past president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting and was selected by his peers in 1995 as National Farm Broadcaster of the Year.
Adams has received numerous awards from agriculture and civic organizations including the Illinois Friend of 4-H award, the National FFA Honorary American Farmer Degree, the United Soybean Board's Communications award and the Illinois commodities groups Friend of Agriculture award.
Adams served 20 years as a certified lay speaker including 16 years as a lay pastor for a rural Illinois United Methodist church.
Mike and his wife Patty have two grown children and currently reside in O' Fallon, Mo.  Dan Gustafson, director, North American Liaison Office, Food and Agriculture Organization
Dan Gustafson is the Director of the FAO Liaison Office for North America. He has worked for the past 30 years on agricultural and rural development in Latin America, Africa and Asia as well as in the United States. He holds an M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D in Agricultural Extension from the University of Maryland. He began his career in Brazil with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), where he worked from 1977 to 1988. This was followed by six years at the University of Maryland at the University’s International Development Management Center. He joined FAO in 1994, first in Mozambique as an advisor within the Ministry of Agriculture and then as head of FAO’s country offices in Kenya from 1998 to 2002 and most recently in India where he worked until returning the US in December 2007.
 Blake Hurst, vice president, Missouri Farm Bureau Federation
Blake Hurst farms near Tarkio, Mo. with his wife Julie, and his father, two brothers, son in law, and nephew. This cast of thousands raises corn and soybeans. Along with their daughter Lee and son in law Ryan, Julie and Blake have a two acre greenhouse operation, selling bedding plants in four states. Daughter Ann works for the Community Hospital in Fairfax, Missouri. Son in law Matt owns Bluffs Catering. Their son Ben is a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. He is a member of Army ROTC. His wife Kenzie is a senior at the University of Missouri, finishing her degree as a Medical Technician in St. Johns Mercy Hospital in St. Louis. The Hurst's have 4 grandchildren. Hurst is the Vice President of Missouri Farm Bureau. He is also a free lance writer. He has been a contributing writer to The American Enterprise, and his work has appeared in several national publications. Hurst is rapidly showing his age, although he's worn the same size pants for years. He just wears them 6 inches lower now. On at least two occasions has been mistaken for Ben's grandfather. But he's proud to be a grandfather to Aaron, Lizzie, Gabe, and Abbie, and is busy inculcating in a new generation a love for baseball, a slightly off center sense of humor, and the inability to take anything very seriously.  Robb MacKie, president, American Bakers Association
Robb MacKie was selected as President and CEO of the American Bakers Association (ABA) at the October 2005 Board of Directors meeting. He previously served for 11 years as Vice President of Government Relation. The ABA is a trade association representing the interests of the wholesale baking industry in Washington, D.C. Mr. MacKie oversees all aspects of the administration and operations of ABA and serves as the baking industry’s chief advocate.
Mr. MacKie is recognized as a leader in the Washington business community. He previously served on the steering committees of several issue-oriented coalitions including the National Coalition on Ergonomics and the Food Industry Coalition on Hours of Service Regulations. He also serves on several baking industry advisory committees.
Mr. MacKie has appeared on CNBC’s Closing Bell and Power Lunch, on Fox Business News, on CNN’s The Glenn Beck Show; and on numerous local news programs in Washington, D.C. and in Baltimore. He has also been interviewed by Orin Samuelson for This Week in Agri-Business.
Before joining ABA, Mr. MacKie worked for Congressman Jim Kolbe of Arizona with a primary responsibility for domestic spending bills. He also worked for the American Subcontractors Association and the Associated General Contractors representing the construction industry's interests before the Congress.
In 2004 Mr. MacKie was appointed by Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich to the Judicial Nominating Commission for Howard County, Maryland. He remains very involved in local community and political activities.
Mr. MacKie is a graduate of Frostburg State University with a degree in Political Science. He and his wife Barbara have two children.  Ken McCauley, chairman, National Corn Growers Association
Ken and his wife, Mary, and son, Brad, farm 3,500 acres of corn and soybeans in North East Kansas near White Cloud, Kansas. McCauley has served on the Kansas Corn Commission in many different positions of leadership, and has held leadership positions in his church and community. Ken was the 2006-2007 President of NCGA. Prior to that he was vice chair of NCGA’s Ethanol Committee and a member of the Research and Development Action Team. Ken serves as a Finance Committee member and liaison on the Biotechnology Working Group.  Randy Schnepf, specialist in agricultural policy, Congressional Research Service
Randy has been an economist with the Agriculture and Food Section of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress since 2003. CRS analysts provide objective, non-partisan research and expertise in support of the U.S. Congress – its Members, Committees, and their staff – in preparing new legislation, monitoring existing laws and programs, and responding to various information requests. Randy has published extensively on agricultural and trade policy issues. Since joining CRS, Randy has worked on issues related to U.S. farm policy, agricultural transportation and commodity markets, agriculture-based renewable energy production and its impact on the agricultural sector, and agriculture in the WTO including trade disputes and the on-going Doha Round.
Prior to joining CRS, Randy spent ten years with USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) where his work experience included serving as the International Baseline Coordinator for USDA’s annual long-run baseline projections exercise, team leader of the Field Crops Branch's Risk Management Team, editor of ERS' Agricultural Outlook magazine, and several years working as a commodity market analyst. His professional career also includes nearly 8 years of agricultural development work in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
Randy has a B.S. in economics from the Univ. of South Dakota, an M.S. in agricultural economics from the Univ. of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the Univ. of Minnesota. Randy is originally from Rock Rapids, Iowa, where his family owns a 200-acre corn and soybean farm. He lives in McLean, Virginia (a suburb of Washington, D.C.) with his wife and two teenage daughters.  Morton Sosland, editor-in-chief, Sosland Publishing Company
Morton Sosland is a native of Kansas City. He served in the Army during World War II and joined the family-owned Sosland Publishing Co. on graduating from Harvard, class of 1946. The company publishes business-to-business magazines primarily focused on the worldwide grain and food processing industries. He has been editor-in-chief of the weekly Milling & Baking News for 40 years and has an editorial role in the other publications. He also was president and chairman of the publishing company, a role that he has passed to his son, Charles. His grandson, Meyer Joseph Sosland, is managing editor of World Grain magazine. He represents the fifth generation of the family to be involved in the publishing business. Morton has served on a number of corporate boards, including H&R Block, Commerce Bancshares, Hallmark Cards, Kansas City Southern, ERC Corporation, Stilwell Financial and TWA. In civic responsibilities, he served as president of the Jewish Federation of Kansas City, chairman of Midwest Research Institute, co-chair of Kansas City Economic Development, and as president of the Pembroke-Country Day School board. He was among the founders of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. In recent years, he has been co-chair of several fund-raising efforts on behalf of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, where his wife, Estelle, is active as a trustee. He is currently a director of the Sosland Foundation, H&R Block Foundation, Lyric Opera Foundation, Hall Family Foundation and the Loose Foundation. |
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