By Annabeth Miller, SMT Editor
HONOLULU – He grew up in Stoddard County, walking cornrows side-by-side with his dad, with his hands in the rich Bootheel soil. He and his wife came back to their hometown to raise a family, to walk those cornrows with his sons – and now his granddaughters – and to make a positive impact in the community.
Along the way, Charles Kruse has been a vital part in the largest farmer organization in the ShowMe State, has served the state, as Director of Agriculture, served his state and nation in the Army National Guard, has been a trusted agricultural advisor to government leaders.
The American Farm Bureau Federation honored former Missouri Farm Bureau President Charles Kruse recently with its highest honor – the Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award. The recognition was announced at the national organization’s recent annual meeting in Honolulu.
AFBF established the Distinguished Service Award to honor individuals who have devoted their careers to serving farming and ranching.
A fourth-generation farmer, Charlie Kruse has dedicated more than 40 years to agriculture, including service on numerous local, state and national committees, among them the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Agriculture and President George H.W. Bush’s Council on Rural America.
For 18 years, until his retirement at the end of 2010, Kruse served as president of the Missouri Farm Bureau. Prior to that, Kruse was the director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, from 1985-1991.
The list of accolades Kruse has received for his work for Missouri agriculture is long, and his support for farming and ranching across the country is equally, if not more, impressive, according to AFBF President Bob Stallman.
“Charlie Kruse embodies Farm Bureau as well as any one person could,” Stallman said. “We are proud to call him our own and honored to have worked alongside him to ensure a strong future for American agriculture.”
Kruse’s national appointments include work on the FARMER-MAC board of directors, President George W. Bush’s Advisory Committee for Trade and Policy Negotiations and the Commission on 21st Century Production Agriculture.
Kruse has represented U.S. agriculture in numerous efforts to grow international markets for American food and fiber. In addition, in 2010, as a retired brigadier general in the Army National Guard, he assisted in creating agri-business development teams in Afghanistan.
Along with serving as Missouri Farm Bureau president from 1992-2010, Kruse’s involvement with Farm Bureau includes service on the AFBF board of directors from 1995-2010 and the organization’s executive committee from 1996-2010.
He was chairman of AFBF’s Task Force on the U.S. Livestock Industry in 2003 and the group’s Trade Advisory Committee in 2004 and 2005.
