Presenters: Dave Krog, Bruce Rastetter, Gordon Spronk

Dave Krog is the first CEO of AgraGate Climate Credits Corp. AgraGate is the leading supplier of carbon credit aggregation services to American farmers, ranchers and private forest owners. Established in June 2007, AgraGate, based in West Des Moines, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation. It will significantly expand the IFBF’s leading Carbon Credit Aggregation Program, which began in 2003. AgraGate combines carbon credits from agricultural offset projects, creating pools of credits for certification and sale on the Chicago Climate Exchange. Electric utilities with coal-burning generating plants are one example of carbon credits purchasers. Prior to joining AgraGate, Krog was a co-founder and vice president of research and development for E-Markets, which provides e-commerce solutions for companies in the agriculture and food industries.

Krog was raised on a corn and soybean farm in north-central Iowa. He was educated at Iowa State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy and master’s and doctoral degrees in agricultural economics.

He was a research associate at ISU’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development for eight years, and then worked in the economic and market research division of Farmland Industries. Before co-founding E-Markets in 1996, Krog was with the Specialty Plant Products Division of Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.

Bruce Rastetter is an Iowa entrepreneur. He was raised on a farm outside of Iowa Falls, Iowa, and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Iowa.
After graduation, Rastetter returned home to the Iowa Falls, Iowa area to build his own business. He founded his own small feed management business that eventually also incorporated a building construction business and a swine production business.

In 1994, Rastetter merged those three separate businesses – feed management, building construction and swine production into one business enterprise called Heartland Pork Enterprises. He served as Heartland’s CEO until 2004, growing the company to the 13th largest pork producer in the United States. In 2004, Bruce successfully guided the acquisition of Heartland Pork by Christensen Farms. The resulting company became the fourth largest pork producer in the United States.

In 2003, Rastetter co-founded Hawkeye Renewables. He has served as the CEO of Hawkeye since its inception and has overseen Hawkeye’s growth to become America’s third largest pure-play ethanol producer.
Additionally, Rastetter owns Summit Farms, headquartered in northern Iowa. Summit Farms is a largely diversified farming operation that includes row crop and livestock production (both pork and beef). Summit Farms is also very active in conservation efforts including the development of wetland areas and upland cover and timber stand improvements.

Bruce is also a very active philanthropist, supporting many local and state efforts focused on education and entrepreneurship. Bruce recently gave over $2 million to the Iowa State University College of Agriculture to endow a chair for their program in Agricultural Entrepreneurship. The Rastetter Foundation continues to support a variety of other interests that Bruce is passionate about. As well, Bruce supports a variety of efforts that encourage thoughtful public policy benefitting America’s economic system.

Bruce also currently serves on the following Boards of Directors: American Ag & Energy Council, Growth Energy, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and the Iowa State University College of Agriculture Advisory Board.

Gordon Spronk is a partner at Pipestone Veterinary Clinic, a diversified large animal practice located in Pipestone, Minnesota. The Pipestone Veterinary Clinic has grown significantly since Spronk joined the practice in 1982. Once a two-veterinarian practice, it now has seven partners and 11 veterinarians. The clinic provides a professional services to livestock producers in the five surrounding states. Spronk is a co-founder of the Pipestone System, production model and over 35 related companies. He is a co-founder and partner in Spronk Brothers III, a swine production business that markets 80,000 pigs per year, and director of Pipestone Natural Pork, a live hog marketing firm for the Pipestone system.

In addition to his practice and business responsibilities, Spronk is an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine, his alma mater. Spronk is also an international consultant where he has worked with swine farms in Asia, Europe, South and Central America, Australia, and all of the major swine-producing states in the United States.

He is the 2000 Swine Practitioner of the Year, and past president of the Society for Theriogenology. He is an active member of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, having served on its Boar Stud and Swine Welfare Committees. Since 2000, he has served as a member of the Swine Disease Eradication Center Advisory Board at the University of Minnesota.

Spronk received his bachelor’s degree and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Minnesota.