ASTA Honors Industry Pioneers

NASHVILLE—June 18, 2024— The American Seed Trade Association honored industry pioneers during the 2024 ASTA Leadership Summit, which is taking place in Nashville, Tennessee. Awardees were recognized in the following categories: Heritage, Distinguished Service, Lifetime Honorary Member, and Excellence in Science.

The Heritage Award serves to preserve and build seed industry history by honoring and recognizing individuals who have significantly impacted the American seed industry and ASTA. Dr. Harold Loden and John Gerard are this year’s Heritage Award awardees.

Born in Georgia, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees, Dr. Harold Loden (1918-2001) served in WWII. After the war, he was assigned to manage the Agriculture Experiment Stations in South Korea. Loden earned a PhD in Plant Genetics at Texas A&M in 1949. He worked first as a cotton breeder for Anderson, Clayton & Company, eventually being named General Manager. He served as President of ASTA in 1968 and was named an Honorary Life Member in 1971. Dr. Loden served ASTA as Executive Vice President from 1973-1983, and the association experienced significant growth and accomplishments during his tenure.

John Gerard is a leader who has been dedicated to the seed industry for most of his career. John grew up on a small livestock, grain, and dairy farm outside of Delphi, Indiana. After graduating from Delphi, John attended Purdue University, graduating with a degree in Ag Education in 1960. Together with Seyler Seed of Plymouth, Indiana, they started VR Seeds, one of the first independent soybean companies in the U.S. Based on Vigor and elite seed quality, John built VR Seeds into a million-bag company and later sold to AgriGenetics, where he launched their licensing division. Always the entrepreneur, he left AgriGenetics and was on the forefront of the licensing world by starting JGL, Inc., an elite soybean and licensing company, Seed Genetics, Inc, a corn licensing company, and JoMar Seeds, a wheat licensing company.

The Distinguished Service Award recognizes those who have made significant contributions to the association and the seed industry. Dr. Stephanie Bloem is this year’s honoree.

Dr. Stephanie Bloem has served as NAPPO’s Executive Director since July 2015. During her tenure with NAPPO, Stephanie advocated for stronger industry-government (NPPO) partnerships to develop regional standards and technical documents, and jointly develop and conduct regional workshops and other projects centered on topics of mutual concern to agricultural industry groups and the three NAPPO member NPPOs. She has continued to strongly support the development and implementation of the systems approach as an alternative to the current international system of consignment-by consignment phytosanitary certification for the international movement of seeds. Stephanie’s vision and leadership skills have significantly strengthened NAPPO during her tenure to be considered one of the most effective and proactive RPPOs globally.

ASTA’s Lifetime Honorary Member Award is one of the highest awards bestowed by the association and is in recognition of untiring service to ASTA, as well as the seed industry. This year’s awardees are Norm Poppe of Applewood Seed Company and Dr. Jim Radtke of Cibus.

Norm Poppe is the CEO of Applewood Seed Company. Previously, he was the company’s general manager from 1988 to 2019, and the vice president of sales and marketing at Veldkamps Flowers Inc. from 1982 to 1988. On behalf of Applewood, Norm has been an active and valuable member of ASTA, contributing on many critical seed issues over the years – from the ever-changing international landscape, where shifting policies have had significant impacts on how seed companies do business, to the integral role he has played in agricultural conservation. With Norm’s leadership, Applewood has been a leader in supplying high quality conservation, pollinator, and wildflower varieties, supporting conservation efforts across the country.

Dr. Jim Radtke is the Senior Vice President of Product Development at Cibus. Jim has over 30 years of seed industry experience with numerous companies, including Dow AgroSciences, Mycogen, Agrigenetics, and Sungene Technology. At Agrigenetics, Jim led the effort to develop the first Bt corn product commercialized in the United States. Jim has been involved with ASTA for over 15 years, actively contributing to ASTA policy developments by lending his expertise to several ASTA committees and working groups. Jim served as ASTA’s Innovation Policy Committee Chair for several years and worked with Bernice Slutsky, ASTA’s former Senior Vice President of Innovation, to start the Plant Breeding Innovation subcommittee, leading the U.S. seed sector to proactively engage and advocate for rational regulatory policy on genome editing both domestically and internationally.

The Seed Science Foundation’s Excellence in Science Award recognizes the outstanding achievement by a public or private researcher whose accomplishments have had an impact in the areas of Breeding Systems, Seed Quality, Seed Production and Technology, Seed Health and Pathology, Digital Agriculture, or Seed Applied Technology. Dr. Ric Dunkle is the 2024 Excellence in Science awardee.

Dr. Ric Dunkle began his career in 1973 with the California Department of Food and Agriculture as a field entomologist. He spent 35 years with state and federal government, including serving as the Deputy Administrator of APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine, where he oversaw USDA’s plant regulatory and trade programs related to phytosanitary issues. He began working for the USDA in 1981, serving in the Secretary’s Office of Environmental Quality as liaison to the Environmental Protection Agency and the USDA and university agricultural research. During Ric’s 15 years with ASTA, he utilized his deep experience and vast network to help move seed across borders and around the world, ensuring the seed industry could navigate the many challenges of global seed movement, including regulatory and environmental obstacles. His strong leadership in streamlining the international flow of phytosanitary seed movement, known as the “Systems Approach,” earned him the nickname “PhytoMan”.

For more information, including full bios of the award winners, view the Awards Commemorative Program.

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Founded in 1883, the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) represents over 700 companies involved in seed production, plant breeding and related industries in North America. ASTA is the leading voice of action in all matters concerning the development, marketing and movement of seed, associated products and services throughout the world. The association’s broad membership offers varieties from alfalfa to zucchini and all production types including conventional, organic and biotech. ASTA promotes the development of better seed to produce better crops for a better quality of life. Visit www.betterseed.org to learn more.