Wishing everyone a Happy Harvest season!! I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for attending and sponsoring this year’s Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance’s Annual Meeting & Golf for Goodworks event, held August 30th – September 1st.
This year we delayed both our annual meeting (typically held in February) and Golf for Goodworks Tournament (held in June) for a combined event. Thank you to our 38 company sponsors for providing our membership and guests the opportunity to interact and have an exceptional meeting and fundraising event. We had 115 registered attendees at our meeting, and were joined on Monday nights reception by New York State Senator John Mannion; Colin Crowley, Chief of Staff to Senator John Mannion; and New York State Assemblyman Brian Miller. Thank you to David Grusenmayer, of NY Farm Viability Institute; and New York State Assemblyman John Lemondes for attending as guests to our annual meeting, it was a pleasure to have you. On the NEAFA website you can find presentation summaries from our outstanding speakers – Dr Carie Telgen, of AABP; Dr Chris Wolfe, of Cornell University; Kate Downes, of NY Farm Net; Gary Huddleston of AFIA; and our most amazing MC Matt Lohr. Thank you to Dr Larry Chase and Dr Tom Overton for moderating a fabulous climate change panel with Dr Jamie Jonker, of National Milk Producers Federation; Dr Mike VanAmburgh, of Cornell University; Dr Curt Gooch, of ProDairy & DMI; and our own Rick Zimmerman filling in for Jon Patterson, of Patterson Farms.
Congratulations to the following individuals – Dr Larry Chase, for his outstanding research and summary for the feed industry’s environmental stewardship award regarding his Nitrogen & Phosphorus white papers. Distinguished Service Awards were presented to the Lutz Family for their devotion & support of the livestock & feed ingredient industry. Additionally, NEAFA presented a Distinguished Service Award on behalf of the late Assemblyman Bill Magee, for all his numerous years supporting NYS agriculture. It was an excellent time to catch up with old friends and thank you all for a safe & fun event celebrating our industry.
Finally, to close out our multi-day combined event, we had 128 golfers participate in this year’s Golf for Goodworks tournament. Congratulations to the following players for their first-place win – Patrick Rohe; Jaime Sprague; Tom Priest; & Kevin Sullivan. Thank you to all who participated in our largest event to date!
At this year’s annual meeting, the board welcomed its five new board members – Alan Wright, of Purina Animal Nutrition, Dr Charlie Elrod, of Natural Biologics, Karl Bitz, of CNY Feeds, Kevin Kouri, of Phoenix Feeds, and Mike Thresher, of Morrison’s Custom Feeds.
One of the Board’s endeavors from this summer’s strategic planning session included revising our Mission Statement. At our board meeting on August 30thst, we unanimously approved the following Mission Statement: “The mission of the Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance is to support and grow a sustainable agribusiness industry in the Northeast.”
We are continuing to work on initiatives from our July Strategic Meeting and will have updates over the course of the next few months as we look to our Vision and Values next. Please share any thoughts or concerns that you may have as a member of the organization. We want to hear from you, especially as we continue to redefine ourselves and provide services and initiatives that benefit our membership.
In closing, please do not forget that September is Hunger Action Month! I challenge all of you to please learn about the hunger issues present in your own communities, to commit to taking action in some form for your community, and to speak up and raise awareness or lend your voice to hunger issues in your community!