Community Contributor - CornucopiaInstitute

For almost 20 years prior to Cornucopia’s launch he was president of M. A. Kastel and Associates, Inc. His professional practice included political consulting, lobbying on behalf of family farm groups, and business development work benefiting family-scale farmers. Mr. Kastel has played a key role in a number of cooperative ventures designed to empower farmers in the marketplace. His development work has focused on creating sustainable farmer-owned businesses with an emphasis on dairy production and marketing.

Kastel played a key role in the farm community's response to the introduction of rBGH. His watershed research, published while doing policy work for the Farmers Union, brought great media scrutiny when he revealed the fact that cows were dying and whole herds were suffering from serious illnesses soon after they were injected. He has been intimately involved at numerous stages during development of the bill to regulate organic farming in Congress, as part of the 1990 farm bill, and the subsequent rule making process at the USDA. He continues to be closely involved in monitoring the seriously flawed management of the National Organic Program at the USDA.

Kastel, who worked for agribusiness giants International Harvester, J.I. Case and FMC before making the paradigm shift to sustainable farming, lives on a 160-acre organic farm in the rugged hills of southwestern Wisconsin, near the tiny burg of Rockton.

Mr. Fantle's previous professional experience is varied but always with a focus on the environment. He has worked in both the public and private sectors developing and promoting renewable energy technologies. Fantle has been a respected consultant in the area of recycling, focusing on municipal and industrial waste generators. For many years he was a regular contributor of feature articles on environmental, resource, food, and health issues for national magazines and urban weekly papers. He is a 2001 recipient of an award from Fairness and Accuracy in Media's Project Censored for his story, Plutonium Pancakes. Mr. Fantle has also worked as webmaster for the Wisconsin Stewardship Network, a coalition of the state's hunting, fishing and environmental groups.

Mr. Fantle graduated with honors from the UW-Eau Claire with degrees in Economics and Political Science. He has been a longtime environmental activist, has served on the boards of several environmental organizations active in Wisconsin, andserves on the Eau Claire County Board. He is married and resides with his wife Francie in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

The Cornucopia Institute has worked hard to maintain a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds on our board of directors. They represent key stakeholder constituencies within the organic and family farming movements including pioneering organic agricultural producers, consumers, scientists, public policy experts, environmentalists/conservation experts, entrepreneurs and retailers. They hail from almost all regions of the country and they share a common dedication to protecting the economic interests of family farmers, the environment and the quality and integrity of the food we all eat.

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