Farm Foundation has announced the recipients of its prestigious 2025 awards, recognizing outstanding individuals dedicated to addressing critical issues in food and agriculture. The honorees exemplify Farm Foundation’s work of fostering innovation, leadership, and thoughtful public policy dialogue.
The recipients of the 2025 Farm Foundation Awards are:
Innovator of the Year: Robbie Dye, CEO, and Tyler Speer, COO, co-founders of Our Farms. Emerging Leader Award:Dr. Shandrea Stallworth, Senior Agronomist and Global Resource, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Regenerative Agriculture, Nestlé Purina North America. RJ Hildreth Public Policy Award: Dr. Keith H. Coble, Vice President for the Division of Agriculture, Forestry, and Veterinary Medicine, Mississippi State University. Book of the Year: Land Rich, Cash Poor by Brian Reisinger, award-winning writer, rural policy expert, speaker, and consultant.
“We received a remarkable range of inspiring nominations this year, and these four honorees stood out for their exceptional contributions,” said Tim Brennan, vice president of programs and strategic impact at Farm Foundation. “Their dedication to tackling critical issues in food and agriculture is vital to improving our food system.”
The awards ceremony will take place during the July 2025 Farm Foundation Round Table meeting in Spokane, Washington.
2024 recipients of Farm Foundation Awards include Dr. Jayson Lusk of Oklahoma State University; Dr. Robert Fraley, former executive vice president and chief technology officer at Monsanto Company; Dr. Yangxuan Liu of the University of Georgia; and Dr. Stephen Adejoro of the Livestock Industry Foundation for Africa.
For the 19th consecutive year, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is bestowing its annual Openness in Government Awards, or Opees, meant to recognize outstanding efforts to protect the state’s tradition of open government, as well as highlight impediments.
The awards are being announced in advance of national Sunshine Week (sunshineweek.org), March 16-22, and will be presented at the Wisconsin Openness Awards Dinner in Madison on March 6, as part of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s annual convention.
Awards are being given in six categories.
The winners are:
Public Openness Advocate (Popee): Milwaukee Police Sensitive Crimes Division and Open Records Division
When Jessica McBride’s UW-Milwaukee journalism class launched a full-semester project to delve into unsolved missing persons cases, she was impressed by the cooperation she received from Milwaukee police, especially Capt. Erin Mejia and Sgt. Jason Kotarak. “They provided the full, unredacted missing person files for each case submitted by the students in just a few weeks,” McBride wrote in her nomination. Credit goes also to the students, who produced an impressive collection of stories, “Missing in Milwaukee.”
Citizen Openness Advocate (Copee): American Oversight
After a yearslong fight, this liberal advocacy group pried records from the probe into Wisconsin’s 2020 election conducted by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, as well as recovery of its legal costs. And Gableman’s disregard for the state’s transparency laws was flagged in several of the 10 counts of alleged misconduct filed against him by the Office of Lawyer Regulation. The probe cost taxpayers nearly $2.5 million and turned up no evidence of wrongdoing other than that committed by Gableman himself.
Media Openness Advocate (Mopee): Wisconsin Examiner
This nonpartisan, nonprofit news site, represented by attorney Tom Kamenick of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, this year settled two important lawsuits. The first was against the city of Black River Falls for seeking to charge reporter Henry Redman thousands of dollars for a third party to retrieve records regarding the disappearance of an Indigenous man. The second was against the city of Wauwatosa for its long delays in handling records requests from reporter Isiah Holmes. Both cases settled with $5,000 payments, with Black River Falls saying its records system was changed to avoid these huge charges.
Open Records Scoop of the Year (Scoopee): TMJ4 for ‘Ghosted‘
When this Milwaukee television station asked the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office for its “Brady list” of law enforcement officers who have had issues that impact their credibility as witnesses, it was denied a complete copy. But it hired attorney Brendan Healey and pressed for more information, which was reportedinaseriescalled “Ghosted.” It’s the first of a series of reports on the serious accountability and transparency concerns the station found. This reporting is ongoing, in partnership with Wisconsin Watch and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Whistleblower of the Year (Whoopee): Todd Heath
This operator of a business that audits telecommunications bills has endured 17 years of litigation over his federal whistleblower claim that Wisconsin Bell overcharged schools and libraries millions of dollars for internet access and other services. In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Heath’s favor, which will allow his claim to proceed (yes, it’s not over yet). The case could reinforce federal programs that make broadband more accessible and affirm accountability and taxpayer protections in whistleblower cases.
No Friend of Openness (NOPEE): Satya Rhodes-Conway
At a press conference the day after the deadly Dec. 16 shooting at Abundant Life Christian School, Madison’s mayor ripped the press for asking too many questions. “It is absolutely none of y’all’s business who was harmed in this incident,” Rhodes-Conway admonished. “Please have some human decency and respect” for the victims and their families. “Don’t feed off their pain.” Her comments were deeply unfair to the reporters, who were hurting too. Bashing the press for political gain is contrary to the cause of openness. Enough already.
Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (wisfoic.org), a group dedicated to open government. Bill Lueders is the council’s president.
Farm Foundation has added a book award to its prestigious roster of annual awards. The Farm Foundation Book of the Year Award is open to a non-fiction English language work focused on food and/or agriculture published within the last 24 months.
“We are excited to expand the scope of the Farm Foundation Awards to honor the importance of a contemporary author exploring food or agriculture,” says Tim Brennan, Farm Foundation vice president of programs and strategic impact. “With so much exciting scholarship in these fields, we anticipate a robust pool of candidates and a difficult choice ahead.”
The book award joins the two lifetime achievement awards and two innovator awards recognizing leaders and change makers who exemplify Farm Foundation’s mission and values. They include: –R.J. Hildreth Public Policy Award In the mid-1990s, Farm Foundation began awarding the R.J. Hildreth Award for Career Achievement in Public Policy, an award open to those in the field of public policy, through government service, as educators, or those researching agricultural policy. –The Farm Foundation Transformational Leadership Award This lifetime achievement award honors an individual who has demonstrated innovative and transformational leadership in food and agriculture. –The Farm Foundation Innovator of the Year Award The focus of this award is to recognize those changemakers that are an integral part of solving some of the most difficult challenges we face today in the food and agriculture sector. –The Farm Foundation Emerging Leader Award This award recognizes a young emerging leader who is on the trajectory to make transformational change within the agriculture and food sector.
The official awards recognition ceremony will take place at the July 2025 Farm Foundation Round Table meeting in Spokane, WA. Award recipients will be invited to participate in the Round Table meeting.
The awards are open to any candidate involved in the agriculture and food sectors. For other nomination requirements and more information on each award, visitfarmfoundation.org/farmfoundationawards.
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