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Names in the News

Stone named KDA marketer<br>
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer has named Mac Stone, a longtime educator and sustainable agriculture leader in Kentucky, executive director of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s (KDA) marketing office, effective March 1.<br>
Stone will replace Michael Judge, who will resign effective Feb. 29 after four years with the department. Stone currently is director of the KDA’s Division of Value-Added Plant Production.<br>
Stone joined the KDA in October 2004 after 19 years as manager of the Research and Demonstration Farm at Kentucky State University in Frankfort. Under Stone’s guidance, the KSU farm established fruit, vegetable, greenhouse, livestock, aquaculture, apiculture and composting programs. Stone helped start KSU’s Third Thursday sustainable agriculture workshop.<br>
Stone worked at the Spendthrift Farm thoroughbred operation and as beef research specialist at the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture. He has been active in the Kentucky Sustainable Agriculture Community, Partners for Family Farms, the Organic Farming Research Foundation and the American Pastured Poultry Producers Assoc. He and his wife, Ann, produce vegetables, tobacco, Angus for seed stock, organic beef, lamb and organically raised pastured poultry at Elmwood Stock Farm in Scott County.<br>
Judge has been executive director of the KDA’s Office of Agriculture Marketing and Product Promotion since May 2004. He joined the KDA that February as director of the Division of Agriculture Marketing and Agribusiness Recruitment. Before that, Judge was the agriculture department chair and director of University Farms at Eastern Kentucky University.<br>
Under Judge’s leadership, Kentucky Proud grew into a major statewide movement that generated an estimated $80 million in retail sales of Kentucky-raised and -produced agricultural products in 2007. More than 1,000 producers, businesses, retailers and farmers’ markets are members of Kentucky Proud.<br>
Judge also led development of “MarketMaker: Kentucky,” an interactive website that connects food producers and buyers, and Kentucky’s Good Agricultural Practices program, which encourages farmers to look for ways to improve their operations so they can raise fresh, healthy produce.<br>
Under Judge, the KDA’s marketing office launched the “Agriculture Adventures: Kentucky” educational program, added a second mobile science activity center to visit Kentucky schools and expanded the scope of its Farm and Home Safety Program.<br>
Indiana farmer in national role<br>

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Gene Schmidt of Hanna, Ind., is the newly-elected treasurer of the National Assoc. of Conservation Districts (NACD). The election took place last week at the NACD conference in Reno, Nev. Schmidt succeeds John Redding of Monroe, Ga., who was elected NACD president.<br>
Schmidt is a past president of the Indiana Assoc. of Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD), 1995-97. Prior to his election as NACD treasurer, he has served the national conservation organization as a member of NACD’s executive board, as chair of the Stewardship and Education Committee and as the North Central Region representative. Nationally, Schmidt also serves on the board of directors of the Conservation Technology Information Center.<br>
Before his death last December, NACD then-President Olin Sims selected Schmidt to receive the NACD President’s Award, which recognizes an individual or organization that has been especially helpful or active with respect to conservation during the president’s term.
Schmidt has farmed in northwestern Indiana for the past 30 years. He and his wife, Diane, make up the operation, where they grow 1,600 acres of seed corn and soybeans and 120 acres of wheat. He began in conservation in the early 1980s and has been a member of the La Porte County SWCD board since 1982.<br>
In addition to conservation activity at the local, state and national levels, Schmidt has served on the Indiana State Ag Advisory Board and is a member of the Indiana Land Resources Council. He also is active in the La Porte County Ag Assoc.<br>
Family accepts Stoller award<br>
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Stoller Family of Paulding County accepted the Ohio Pork Industry Excellence Award in honor of the late Mark Stoller at the 2008 Ohio Pork Congress held in Columbus on Feb. 6.<br>
Stoller was dedicated to his family and farming and made many significant contributions to the pork industry. He was a founding member of the PGI group and part of the Great Lakes Co-op. He served on the Ohio Pork Producers Council board of directors from 1999-2002. His leadership roles included chairman of the membership and demand enhancement committees, as well as a member on several other committees. He was also an Ohio delegate for the Pork Industry Forum.<br>
Stoller was part of Stoller and Sons farming, which includes a pork operation of more then 900 sows. Beyond the pork industry, he was active in his church and had a great love for his family.
The award is given to a pork producer or pork-producing family who has made an outstanding contribution to the swine industry. Stoller was selected for his willingness to give time, money and talent to the promotion of pork on a local, state and national level. He was killed in the fall of 2007 at age 56 in a tractor roll-over accident.<br>

2/27/2008