For more information:
Bonnie Jaedicke, (608) 262-1445
9/29/08
PROFILES RECIPIENTS OF 2008 HONORARY RECOGNITION AWARDS
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
University of Wisconsin-Madison
James R. Behnke
(725) 831-1988
[Photo available at: www.cals.wisc.edu/downloads/HonRec08/JBehnke.jpg]
After earning a Ph.D. in food science at CALS in 1972, James Behnke began a career that took him to the highest levels of the food industry. He began with Quaker Oats, then was recruited by the Pillsbury Company in 1974 and rose rapidly in that firm’s research and development department. As Chief Technical Officer (CTO) from 1979 until he retired in 2000, he oversaw new product development (which generated 20–25 percent of the company’s worldwide sales), process engineering, food safety, nutrition, environmental affairs and many other core functions, and built what many consider one of the industry’s strongest technical organizations. He served on Pillsbury’s Board of Directors from 1992-2000. He is most proud of the people who worked in his technical organization and then went on to take leadership positions throughout the food industry. Since retiring he has served as president of the International Life Sciences Institute and continues as a consultant to the food industry.
Elton Aberle, former Dean of CALS calls Behnke “a Badger to the core who wears his passion for the university on his sleeve.” He was a member of the CALS Board of Visitors from 1996-2004, serving as chair from 2000-2002. Jim has been a leader in the food science department’s current educational fundraising initiative. James and Deena Behnke have established annual scholarships and research assistantships and are members of both the Bascom Hill Society and the Van Hise Circle. Their estate plan includes a $1 million gift to the UW Foundation in support of the Department of Food Science.
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Linda H. Bochert
(608) 283-2271
[Photo available at: www.cals.wisc.edu/downloads/HonRec08/LBochert.jpg]
For the past 34 years, Linda Bochert has helped create innovative agricultural and natural resource programs that protect Wisconsin’s environment and quality of life.
A 1974 graduate of the UW-Madison Law School, Bochert spent 17 years in state government as a lawyer and policy-maker with the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Justice. She helped develop and implement many of the state’s pioneering pollution control laws and has played a leadership role in such landmark initiatives as Wisconsin’s groundwater quality protection law, brownfield redevelopment program, Working Lands Initiative, and Green Tier program. Since 1991 Bochert has been a partner in the firm of Michael Best & Friedrich, LLP, where she focuses on environmental and utility regulatory law.
Bochert also lends her expertise to nonprofit councils and state advisory committees. Through the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, she played a key role in the enactment of the state’s livestock siting law and rules and co-chairs the Working Lands Initiative Steering Committee. She sits on the Department of Revenue’s Farmland Advisory Council, the College of Natural Resources Advisory Board at UW-Stevens Point, and the Board of Directors of the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin. She is a past chair of the CALS Board of Visitors.
Bochert co-authors an annual survey of Wisconsin environmental law, is a co-author and co-editor of the Wisconsin Environmental Law Handbook, 4th edition. She is listed in Best Lawyers in America, in SuperLawyers as one of Wisconsin’s 50 top lawyers and one of the state’s 25 top female lawyers, and has been voted by peers as one of the best environmental lawyers in Madison Magazine since 2001. She is a Founding Regent of the American College of Environmental Lawyers.
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Peter D. Giacomini
(608)848-4566
[Photo available at: www.cals.wisc.edu/downloads/HonRec08/PGiacomini.jpg]
As chief operating officer of AgSource Cooperative Services, Peter Giacomini has helped create one of the preeminent organizations in the business of helping farmers use science-based tools to improve their profitability. In the early 1990’s AgSource (then known as Wisconsin DHI Cooperative) was a dairy herd improvement cooperative limited in service to Wisconsin. The firm is now the largest full service DHI organization in the country and is one of the largest providers of feed, food, and environmental and agronomic testing services in the nation. In 1992, he collaborated with others in the industry to create CRI, America’s first agricultural holding cooperative. With AgSource, he worked with the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine to introduce the transition cow index, an innovative technique to monitor dairy-cow performance. He has held leadership in many dairy industry organizations. He is currently chair of the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives board of directors and recently completed a term as chair of the U.S. Council of Dairy Breeding. He was a 1997 recipient of the National DHIA Management Award.
Giacomini graduated from UW-Madison in 1979 with degrees in dairy science and agricultural economics and has since provided invaluable service to his alma mater. He is chair-elect of the CALS Board of Visitors, has served on advisory committees of both the Department of Dairy Science and Center for Dairy Profitability, and spent many years advocating for the college at the Federal level as a Wisconsin delegate on the Council for Agricultural Research Extension and Teaching.
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Richard R. Renk
(608) 837-6828
[Photo available at: www.cals.wisc.edu/downloads/HonRec08/RRenk.jpg]
Since joining the Renk Seed Company in 1961, Richard Renk has helped his family’s business thrive in an industry dominated by multinational giants. He is now chairman of the board of the firm, which has been nurtured by four generations of the Renk family to become Wisconsin’s largest privately owned seed company. Building on a strong foundation, he has kept the enterprise on the cutting edge of agriculture and business.
He has also built on his family’s long tradition of service to the seed industry, Wisconsin agriculture and his own community. He has been active in the American Seed Trade Association and the Wisconsin Crop Improvement Association, is the founding president of the Sun Prairie Sertoma Service Club, serves on the M&I Bank board of directors, is the longest-serving director of the American Family Insurance group board, with 33 years of service, and served for 25 years as chairman of the Town of Bristol Planning and Zoning Commission.
Renk earned a B.S. in meat and animal sciences from CALS in 1962 and an MBA from the UW-Madison School of Business in 1964. His family’s long record of support for the university includes the establishment of the Renk Agribusiness Institute, which allows the university to offer an MBA in agribusiness. Renk is a director and the first vice president of the Wisconsin Rural Opportunities Foundation, which awards scholarships at Wisconsin universities to students who are interested in agriculture, nursing or rural life. He also has served on the boards of visitors for both CALS and the School of Veterinary Medicine.
Recipient of 2008 Distinguished Service Award
Robert A. Cropp
(608) 835-7159
[Photo available at: www.cals.wisc.edu/downloads/HonRec08/RCropp.jpg]
Robert Cropp’s 40 years as a dairy marketing specialist have been devoted to studying, interpreting and improving the labyrinthine system that governs the price that Wisconsin's dairy farmers are paid for their milk.
“Bob Cropp personifies the ideals of extension,” says Rod Nilsestuen, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. “No one has devoted himself more thoroughly, worked longer hours, taken on more controversial, lightning-rod issues, traveled more miles, responded to more calls, led more seminars and workshops, worked on more studies and projects nor testified at more national congressional hearings.”
Now an emeritus professor of agricultural and applied economics, Cropp has published more than 200 extension articles and several book chapters on dairy marketing and cooperatives. Since 1973, his monthly Dairy Situation column has been supplying state dairy farmers with timely information and market forecasts. He has helped numerous dairy cooperatives devise strategies for growth and profitability and has put in countless hours in the halls of government, advocating for policies that gave Upper Midwest dairy industry a square deal.
Whether he is talking to students, farmers, legislators or researchers, Cropp is highly regarded for his keen ability to easily translate highly complex subject matter for diverse audiences. As Steven Krikava, director of government relations for the Land O'Lakes farmer cooperative, writes: “I've found that when Bob Cropp weighs in on an issue, his voice is listened to very carefully.”