Former Indiana U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) was awarded with the highest recognition from the American Farm Bureau Federation.
The Distinguished Service Award was presented to the former senator at the opening session of the 95th Annual Convention in San Antonio, Texas.
The Indiana Farm Bureau nominated Lugar for his lifetime devotion to agriculture, and Don Villwock, President of the Indiana Farm Bureau, was onstage during the presentation.
In his acceptance remarks, Lugar noted the theme of the convention, Heritage and Future, in mentioning his own experiences as a boy on the Lugar farm pulling volunteer corn out of the soybean fields. He mentioned that his dad, Marvin Lugar, was achieving approximately 50 bushels per acre in his corn crops. This year, the Lugar farm enjoyed a 191 bushels per acre corn crop due to agricultural advances in the use of genetically modified seed, advanced soil management techniques, and remarkable new farm equipment. He pointed out that one of the major missions of The Lugar Center in Washington, D.C., is promotion of global food security at a time when over 800 million people in the world suffer chronic hunger.
Lugar thanked the American Farm Bureau for significant support during his years as Chairman and his 36 year membership on the United States Senate Agriculture Committee, and he thanked the delegates for their continuing partnership with the work and objectives of The Lugar Center.
