Combined Session with NAFB Members
This session also serves as the business program of the NAFB Convention for their broadcast, management and allied industry councils. We’re pleased to join the NAFB members in this combined session.

(1:30 – 2:45 p.m.)

Food, Fuel, & Feed – Frontiers of Change
Moderator: Sano Shimoda, BioScience Securities, Inc.
Dan Basse, AgResource
Ann Ness, Cargill
Lyle Orwig, Charleston Orwig
John Becherer, United Soybean Board

The output “formula” of agriculture becomes more and more dynamic and diverse. How are the basic “drivers” changing? Will core grain crops be able to supply traditional markets, and how will trait-specific varieties continue to impact cropping? To what extent will emerging bio-fuels alter the equation and markets? And what about implications for the branding and marketing of food and nutrition, as well as other key product and distribution channels (pharmaceutical, industrial, etc.)? Panelists will offer a top-line discussion of these and other elements of vital consequence in agriculture – and to those professionals who market and communicate about it. This concluding session of the NAMA Agribusiness Forum, and kick-off session of the NAFB Convention, will take a close look at the Frontiers of Change faced by American agriculture.

Sano Shimoda is President and Founder of BioScience Securities, a boutique corporate advisory and investment banking firm in the Los Angeles area. His firm is unique in its focus in agricultural biotechnology and bio-products. Sano has over 30 years of experience in the Wall Street community and is well recognized for his forward-looking views of the changing dynamics new bio-developments will have on agriculture.

Dan Basse is Founder and President of AgResource, a domestic and international agricultural advisory and research firm which forecasts domestic and world agricultural price trends. Raised on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, Dan has applied his keen sense of agriculture in positions at GNP Commodities and Professional Farmers of America. Dan is often quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post, as well as guest appearances on CNN, CNBC, and NBC and ABC network news.

Ann Ness, is Vice President of Corporate Brand Management at Cargill, where she is responsible for the corporate brand identity and related advertising campaigns. Previously, Ann was brand manager at Radisson Hotels Worldwide and an account executive at an advertising agency. She began her career as a newspaper reporter in southern Indiana and later in St. Louis. Ann serves on the Carlson School of Management’s Brand Enterprise at the University of Minnesota where she is a frequent guest speaker.

Lyle Orwig is the Chief Executive Officer of Charleston Orwig, an advertising and public relations agency he co-founded in 1992, whose client list includes Smithfield Foods, Miller Brewing Company, Applebee, Arm & Hammer Animal Nutrition and Dairyland Seed. Previously, Lyle worked for Bader Rutter & Associates, Century Communications (previous publisher of Agri Marketing, Agri Finance, and Agri Educator magazines) and Reiman Associates.

John Becherer is the Chief Executive Officer of the United Soybean Board. He directs the implementation of the USB’s budget and manages the soybean checkoff’s national office in Chesterfield, MO. Prior to joining USB, John served as Executive Director for the Conservation Technology Information Center in West Lafayette, Indiana. He has more than 25 years of management experience in agricultural organizations.

To register for the Agribusiness Forum visit, http://nama.org/forum/register.htm.

For more information on the Forum and the speakers visit, http://www.nama.org/forum/index.html.