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John McMinn has been hired as the director of Commodity Activities and Economics at Arkansas Farm Bureau, where he will be responsible for economic analysis and commodity-specific programs and activities surrounding for Aquaculture, Forestry and Specialty Crops.

A native of Stuttgart, McMinn has spent the past three years as a program associate in the agricultural economics and agribusiness department with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Research and Extension. His primary responsibility has been to develop and promote specialty crop budgets for growers within Arkansas to help them better manage risk. He also did price analysis for different specialty crop markets and helped define new forms of value-added products for Arkansas growers. McMinn also worked as a precision ag adviser for Greenway Equipment, where he helped farmers deploy global positioning satellite equipment and other precision ag technologies. 

McMinn earned undergraduate and graduate degrees through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas. As part of his master’s degree program in international agricultural economics, McMinn studied at the University of Ghent in Belgium.

"John’s experience during his last three years at the Cooperative Extension Service and the relationships he developed will allow him to hit the ground running," said Evan Teague vice president of commodity and regulatory affairs. "He has some interesting ideas about farm-to-table markets that should expand opportunities for our members into a growing market. He will also bring a fresh perspective to our aquaculture and forestry areas as well.”

Arkansas Farm Bureau is a nonprofit, private farm and rural advocacy organization of more than 190,000 member families throughout the state working to improve farm and rural life. 

For more information, contact:  

Steve Eddington
(501) 228-1383
steve.eddington@arfb.com

or

Rob Anderson
(501) 228-1640
rob.anderson@arfb.com