INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The carnival is packed up and moved, livestock barns are empty, food stands are shuttered for another 11 months and some kids who like meeting up at the Indiana State Fair will have to wait that long to see one another in person again.

 

But what will last are awards bestowed on a select few from the state’s farming community and related agricultural industries – including the AgriVision honor each year from the Office of the Lieutenant Governor. This year, two prominent names in Hoosier agriculture share the award – AgriNovus Indiana President/CEO Beth Bechdol and Purdue University Interim Provost Dr. Jay Akridge.

“For me, this is a team award,” Akridge said, crediting his faculty, staff and students for work that helped secure his nomination. “So many things are coming together right now” across the state, he explained, to advance and promote agriculture.

One of the cogs in that machine is headed up by his fellow honoree. Just two days before the August 17 ceremony, AgriNovus released a short video tied in with its new social media campaign, branded #TimeToTell across all platforms, with the message that it’s time for those in Indiana agriculture to brag about the industry’s accomplishments on a global stage.

“To change the way the world – the world – views Indiana” in the field of food-related production and technology, is how Bechdol described the effort.

Raised on a corn and soybean farm in Auburn, Bechdol said she was in 4-H as a child but did not chase a career in agriculture (“That’s why my sister runs the farm,” she said, smiling).

Nevertheless, she began working for an ag consulting firm in Washington, D.C., after earning a bachelor’s degree in international law and affairs, eventually going back to Indiana for a master’s from Purdue in ag economics.

In addition to heading AgriNovus, she is law firm Ice Miller’s director of Agribusiness Strategies. “Beth is a true champion for Indiana’s agriculture community, from her leadership at the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) … to her active support of Indiana agribusiness and her advocacy for food and agricultural innovation,” said Melissa Proffitt, Ice Miller managing partner and chair of its Agribusiness Group.

Akridge, named interim provost in January, is perhaps best known for his years as the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture at Purdue and as the James and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics, as well as the director of the Center for Food and Agricultural Business. His family owns and operates a third-generation retail farm supply business in Fredonia, Ky.

His research has examined the buying behavior of commercial agricultural producers, innovations in marketing strategies by agribusiness firms and adoption of new technology by agribusiness. 

 

Adkridge received his master’s and doctorate in agricultural economics from Purdue, specializing in marketing and finance, and a bachelor’s in agriculture and business administration in 1982 from Murray State University in Kentucky.

Women in Agriculture

Two other notable names took home this year’s Purdue extension Women in Agriculture awards. Conservation in farming is a defining interest for both honorees – Jane Hardisty is state conservationist with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Carrie Vollmer-Sanders is nutrient strategy manager with The Nature Conservancy’s North America Agriculture Program.

Hardisty, who grew up on a farm in Hancock County, graduated from Ball State University in 1974 with a degree in natural resources management. She went to work for the Soil Conservation Service (now NRCS) that year as its first female conservationist.

In 2000 she was named state conservationist – finally in the same job as the man who at first refused to hire her 26 years earlier, telling her that women just didn’t have those jobs. Another barrier she has broken is that she is currently the nation’s longest-serving state conservationist.

“I got tested a lot by tile contractors, land contractors, farmers themselves,” she said, recalling being not only the first woman with that job in Indiana but a very young woman.

In 2010 she helped establish Women4theLand, a partnership of ag and natural resource conservation agencies and organizations working together to provide information, networking, education and resources to Indiana’s female landowners and farmers.

Hardisty has been impressed over the decades with Indiana farmers’ willingness to learn to incorporate conservation in their operations as well as their innovative ideas for the same. She is also impressed by her fellow employees, saying, “Family is really important, and I’ve been lucky to have a family at work” in addition to the support of her parents.

ISDA Director Ted McKinney noted Hardisty is known across other states for her work, while The Nature Conservancy is also well-regarded for how it works with state ag interests. Jason Henderson, associate agriculture dean and director of Purdue extension, said Vollmer- Sanders particularly “has a passion for conservation, but also for how it works on the farm.” 

 

She and her family grow corn, soybeans, wheat and sunflowers in northeastern Indiana and northwestern Ohio. She grew up on a farm just inside the Ohio state line and recalled as a child riding bikes with her two sisters to Indiana and the mini-adventures they had – picking flowers, talking to Amish farmers and gaining appreciation for the land.

Vollmer-Sanders linked those three girls’ cooperation in consistently having to share two bikes and one pull-along trailer with the way people in all sectors of Indiana agriculture work together to pull the entire industry ahead.

Before her current job, she was the Conservancy’s director of the Western Lake Erie Basin Project for almost six years and was honored by then- President Obama for her work to reduce nutrient runoff into the lake. She earned a bachelor’s degree in agriscience and biology education, as well as a master’s in agricultural economics, from Michigan State University.

These four awards are presented every year, and candidates can be nominated by anyone. To see requirements for the Women in Ag award, visit https://ag.purdue.edu/extension/WIA and for the AgriVision guidelines, go to www.in.gov/isda/3367.htm

Akridge said youth development programs for agriculture are robust now, giving him hope for the industry’s future.

Some child, he said on August 17, was probably that very day doing something at the state fair, unaware of the impact they’ll grow up to have on Indiana agriculture.

But it’s equally likely, he said, that another future well-known ag visionary was sitting in an urban math class not even thinking about farms or food. “They don’t yet know they’re going to be leading this industry, someday,” he observed.