Our Steering Committee

Select agricultural industry leaders are being invited to serve as formal Ag Steering Committee members and Ad-Hoc Informal Advisors.

Advisors are serving in their personal capacity in 2020 and are in conversations with their respective trade associations. In 2021 Committee Members will be invited to formally serve in their organizational capacity. Currently, participation does not presume endorsement; it means constructive engagement in policy design and dialogue.

RIPE Agricultural Steering Committee

Curt Mether

Chair, Iowa Corn Growers Association; Member, National Corn Growers Association, U.S. Grains Council, Iowa Soybean Association, Iowa Farm Bureau, and American Green Gas.

Curt has been farming for 41 years and currently grows corn and soybeans with his wife, Anita. He enjoys creating opportunities for long-term corn grower profitability.

Dwight Mogler

VP of Resources, Iowa Pork Producers Association

Dwight is a senior partner with Mogler Farms/Pig Hill. They have 3,000 sows and market 90,000 pigs wean-to-finish per year. The farm enterprise also includes 2,500 acres of corn and soybeans. He was named a Master Pork Producer by IPPA in 1982 and he received the Pork All-American Award in 1997.

Eunice Biel

Former Chair, Executive Committee, Minnesota Farmers Union

Eunice is a producer at Biel Dairy, which manages 200 cows and 1,400 acres of crops. She has also served as county farmers union president and a frequent participant in National Farmers Union Legislative Fly-ins. Eunice enjoys working for better policies for producers.

Fred Yoder

Co-Chair, Solutions from the Land; Past President, National Corn Growers Association

Fred is a fourth-generation grower who has farmed for over forty years. He raises corn, soybeans, and wheat. As an advocate, Fred promotes agriculture as a solution to many sustainability challenges. He feels it is imperative to produce more in a sustainable way, while also providing ecosystem services.

Phil Gordon

Vice President, Michigan Corn Growers Association

Phil is owner of Gordon Valley Farms, where he and his family grow corn, wheat, and soybeans. His love for the land led him to be recognized by the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program. Phil believes in being proactive and trying new things when it comes to farming and protecting the environment.

Brad Doyle

Board of Directors, American Soybean Association; President, County Farm Bureau; former President, Arkansas Soybean Association

Brad operates Berger Farms/Eagle Seed with his wife Joyce in Weiner, AR. They grow soybeans, rice, wheat and cereal rye. He’s attended the ASA DuPont Young Leader program and Leadership At Its Best, in addition to a REAP Tour and Soybean Leadership College. He’s also on the ASA Advocacy Communications Team.

Brandon Hunnicutt

Vice Chair, Nebraska Corn Board; Member, Corn Board, National Corn Growers Association (NCGA); Chair, Board of Directors, Field to Market; Past President, Nebraska Corn Growers Association; Past President, Nebraska Agricultural Technologies Association

Brandon raises corn, soybeans, seed corn, popcorn and sorghum on his family farm in Giltner, Nebraska. Brandon is a graduate of NCGA’s Leadership At Its Best and Advanced Leadership Program.

You?

Director, Midwest Commodity Growers Association

RIPE is seeking ag industry leaders who are active with commodity trade groups in the Midwest to serve on RIPE’s Ag Steering Committee. We are holding spaces for representatives of particular states and commodities and would welcome the opportunity to talk with you about the opportunity.

Technical Advisory Group

Chrisina DeConcini

Director of Government Affairs, World Resources Institute

Ari Peskoe

Director, Electricity Law Initiative, Harvard Law School, Environmental and Energy Law Program

Dr. William H. Schlesinger

President Emeritus, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

Clare Sierawski

Former environmental advisor to Senator John Kerry and former Chief of Staff for U.S. State Department Office of the Special Envoy for Climate Change

Ad-Hoc and Former Advisors

Ken McCarty

Owner/Manager, McCarty Family Farms, 4th-Generation Dairy Farmer

Meredith Ellis

Rancher, G Bar C Ranch; Board Member, Integrity Beef Alliance; US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef

Ray Gaesser

Co-Chair, Conservation Infrastructure Initiative; Former President, American Soybean Association and Iowa Soybean Association

Roger Zylstra

President, Iowa Corn Promotion Board; Chair, NCGA Stewardship Action Team; Participant, Soil Health Partnership

Susan Brocksmith

Producer, Vincennes, IN; Chair, Agribusiness, Vincennes University

Tony Mellenthin

President, Wisconsin Soybean Association; Producer, Mellenthin Farms

Anonymous Advisor

An anonymous fourth-generation farmer of grains and cattle; serves in leadership roles in state and national farm trade associations

Carla Frisch

Principal, Rocky Mountain Institute on America’s Pledge; former Director of Climate and Environmental Analysis, U.S. Department of Energy

Dr. Laura Bozzi

Director of Programs, Yale Center on Climate Change and Health

Amanda DeBusk, Melissa Duffy, and Jean Chang

Dechert LLP

Prof. Ted Feitshans

Extension Professor Emeritus, Agriculture and Resource Economics, University of North Carolina

Professor Eric Patashnik

Director, Master of Public Affairs Program at Brown University, Professor of Public Policy and Political Science

Dr. Dallas Burtraw

Darius Gaskins Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future; Chair of California’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee

Sonia Aggarwal, Chris Busch, and Robbie Orvis

Energy Innovation

Dr. Deb Gordon

Senior Fellow in International and Public Affairs at Brown University, former Director of the Energy and Climate Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

You?

In addition to our team of advisors, RIPE is grateful for the guidance of our volunteers, staff, and contractor groups.

Interested in serving as an advisor?

We’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch with the form below and we will get back to you as soon as possible.