October 22, 2012
Kansas Agriculture Secretary Rodman to speak Nov. 5 on drought, impact on food production
Kansas Secretary of Agriculture, Dale Rodman, will speak at Kansas State University at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5, in the K-State Student Union Main Ballroom. The lecture is the fifth installment of the Upson Lecture Series, sponsored by the K-State student and young alumni group, Food For Thought.
Secretary Rodman will address pertinent issues surrounding the recent drought and how it has affected food production and the agriculture industry’s challenge of feeding the world. The impending increase in the cost of food, which affects families from all demographics, will be discussed at length. The lecture is free and open to the public and will be followed by a question and answer session.
Rodman grew up farming and raising cattle with his family in southeast Kansas. A feed milling graduate of Kansas State University, he spent 37 years at Cargill Inc., where he worked alongside agribusiness professionals. He also served four years as president of Tramco Inc. and has traveled the world on behalf of food production.
Rodman’s experience in grain processing, meat processing, milling and many other facets of agriculture led him to be called out of retirement in 2011 by Gov. Sam Brownback to serve as the secretary of agriculture.
Food for Thought, the lecture series’ sponsor, is a grass-roots group of K-Staters who strive to bridge the gap between consumers and agriculture. The group includes undergraduate, graduate and veterinary students, as well as young alumni, who work under the guidance of Dan Thomson, the director of K-State’s Beef Cattle Institute and Don Boggs, associate dean of the K-State College of Agriculture.
The Upson lecture series is named after Dan Upson, K-State professor emeritus. Upson taught in the College of Veterinary medicine for 35 years before retiring in 1994. He has received numerous awards for his dedication to classroom teaching and the veterinary profession.
More information about Food For Thought is available on the group's blog, http://bloggingfoodforthought.blogspot.com/ on Twitter at http://twitter.com/fftgroup or on Facebook.
For more information about the lecture, contact Brandi Buzzard, a Food For Thought member, at bbuzzard@k-state.edu or 785-532-1123.