Joe Funk Receives ASTA Distinguished Service Award
- On June 30, 2017
SEED TODAY Editor Joe Funk was recently honored with the 2017 ASTA Distinguished Service Award. The Distinguished Service Award recognizes those whose efforts have made a significant contribution to the association and the seed industry. The award was announced on June 21 during the Opening General Session of the ASTA Annual Convention.
“Joe has been faithfully serving agriculture and the seed industry with in-depth reporting on our rapidly changing business for 30 years,” said ASTA Chair Mark Herrmann. “He’s not satisfied to just research a topic and write about it; more often than not, you’ll find Joe making a personal trip to see first-hand the subject of his article.”
Funk, a Central Illinois native, was raised on a dairy/grain farm near Bloomington in the heart of the world’s best farming area. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Agronomy and a minor in economics. His work experience from there included 10 years with the USDA as County Executive Director and a few years as a district sales manager for a regional seed company. Joe began writing for Grain Journal in 1987 and was appointed Editor of SEED TODAY in 1998, about a year after the magazine began publication.
Next week Joe will begin his encore career as an external agriculture communications consultant.
