OSU food and ag center advisory board
The recent Oklahoma State University Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center’s advisory board meeting looked a little different than past meetings. The greetings of handshakes and delicious refreshments during arrival were replaced with virtual handwaves and pictures of colorful iced donuts.
FAPC held its Industry Advisory Committee meeting utilizing the Zoom cloud-based platform to connect the board members with center faculty and staff.
The committee meetings give the board an opportunity to offer counsel, make decisions and take leadership action to ensure FAPC makes sound short- and long-term plans to accomplish its mission and objectives, said Ed Clements, chair of the advisory board.
Some of the topics discussed include the Oklahoma Manufacturing Reboot Program, COVID-19 effects on the Oklahoma food industry, small meat plant operation start-ups and feasibility, partnership with the Small Business Development Center, online training development and more.
Committee members are appointed by the Oklahoma governor, speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, the Senate president pro tempore and the vice president for agricultural programs of OSU’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
In addition to Ed Clements, chair of the advisory board, other members of the committee include Scott Dvorak, Dvorak Farms; Joe Ford, Shawnee Milling Co.; John Griffin, Griffin Foods; Erica Hering, Ralph’s Packing Co; David Howard, Howard Industries; Curtis Jurgensmeyer, J-M Farms; Rodger Kerr, Southwest Economic Development Corp.; Tommy Kramer, Kramer Consulting Co.; John Lopez, Lopez Foods; Max McDermott, deVine Water Co.; David McLaughlin, McLaughlin Group LLC; Paul Schatte, Paul’s Food Products; Mark Vaughan, Fresh Avenue Partners; and ex-officio Tom Coon, OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
