Stephens elected to serve as President of Soybean Association

In their respective board meetings this week, Davie Stephens of Wingo was elected President of the American Soybean Association (ASA) and Keith Tapp of Sebree was elected Chairman of the United Soybean Board (USB).

Stephens has served his fellow soybean farmers since being elected to the Kentucky Soybean Association Board by his peers in 2006. He has since served the Kentucky Soybean Association in a number of roles, including President, and the Kentucky Soybean Board in a number of roles including as Chairman. He has represented Kentucky on the American Soybean Association Board since 2012, and has served in numerous leadership roles at the national level. He most recently served ASA as Vice President.

The American Soybean Association is a membership dues funded organization that focuses on policy and trade efforts. ASA’s responsibilities include legislative, policy and regulatory efforts in Washington, D.C. on behalf of U.S soybean farmers. ASA is actively involved in policy issues that impact U.S. soybean farmers such as the renewable fuel standard for biodiesel, the farm bill, trade negotiations, transportation and infrastructure, and a variety of regulatory actions. ASA supports increased international market development by investing ASA-awarded cost-share funding provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the U.S. Soybean Export Council.

Tapp has also been in service to his fellow soybean farmers for a number of years. He was voted onto the KSA board in 2004 and served in many of the same roles as Stephens. After taking an interest in the policy side of national service, Tapp gravitated to the checkoff side, serving since 2012 as one of Kentucky’s representatives to the United Soybean Board. He most recently served USB as Vice-Chairman. USB is the entity tasked with the effective investment and leveraging of soy checkoff funds to build preference for U.S. soy and increase profit opportunities for U.S. soybean farmers. By law, checkoff dollars cannot be used to fund policy or lobbying efforts, so USB and ASA serve very different, but very necessary roles.

Records from the United Soybean Board indicate that this is only the third time in history that the ASA President and USB Chairman have hailed from the same state. Farmer-leaders and staffers who represent the Kentucky Soybean Association and the Kentucky Soybean Board congratulate Stephens and Tapp on this outstanding accomplishment and appreciate their dedication