
Overview
Farm Journal Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation formed in 2010 by leaders of Farm Journal Media, who wanted to leverage the Farm Journal brand’s unique position as the most trusted media brand in agriculture, to affect social change. The Foundation is dedicated to sustaining agriculture’s ability to meet the vital needs of a growing population through education and empowerment.

Details
We leverage farmers and ranchers, industry, academia, government, consumers and NGO partnerships to:
- Elevate the next generation’s understanding of the connection between expanding global nutritional needs and advanced agriculture’s capacity to meet those needs.
- Advocate for a policy environment that prioritizes hunger issues and empowers farmers and ranchers to meet the challenge.
- Advance sustainable agricultural development and other proven hunger solutions.
Tricia Beal
Chief Executive Officer
Tricia was announced as the Farm Journal Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer in October 2014. She is responsible for advancing the Foundation’s mission of sustaining agriculture’s ability to meet the vital needs of a growing population through education and empowerment. Prior to her new role, Tricia spent the past eight years at Novus International, Inc. where she held the role of Chief of Staff and Head of Corporate Initiatives. She was accountable for extending organizational capacity, managing a global partnership portfolio, building corporate brand and reputation, and engaging employees in more than 50 countries into the organization’s vision of all people having access to safe and affordable food.
Tricia serves as a member of several boards, including the World Agricultural Forum and has served as Program Co-Chair of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) World Forum for the past two years in Atlanta, Georgia and Cape Town, South Africa. In 2014 she graduated as a class VX member of Agriculture Leaders of Tomorrow and participated in the Harvard Business School’s Agribusiness Seminar in Shanghai, China.
Rose Barbuto
Executive Director of External Relations
Rose Barbuto leads the Foundation’s Washington office where she will oversee government relations activities, develop strategic alliances, and help develop new program platforms that build on the Foundation’s work with US Farmers, next generation engagement, and national policy makers.
Since its launch in 2010, The Farm Journal Foundation (FJF) has been bringing new voices to the agricultural development policy table, broadening the agriculture discussion, and serving as a bridge between development and agricultural groups through several platforms:
- Farmers Feeding the World, a national network of elite farmers passionate about the role of agriculture in addressing hunger around the world engage national policymakers to advance the government’s commitment to agriculture in U.S. foreign policy.
- HungerU, a Next Generation engagement platform with 20,000 student advocates connects to university populations and policy makers, raising awareness of nutrition and food security issues.
- The Farm Journal Foundation Dialogue identifies important policy moments and delivers the best, updated information available to decision makers.
Dr. Stephanie Mercier
Senior Policy and Advocacy Adviser
Dr. Stephanie Mercier expands the Foundation’s partnership network, provides policy analysis, and leads the Foundation’s Farm Team program. Prior to coming to work at the Foundation, Stephanie served between 1997-2011 in the position of chief economist for the Democratic staff of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Previously, she served as team leader for the Trade Policy and Programs area of the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In her nine years at ERS, she worked on both domestic commodity programs and trade policy issues. On the Hill, she covered a wide variety of issues for the Committee, among them domestic farm programs, risk management policy, and international agricultural trade and food aid policy.
After retiring from the Committee in 2011, she worked as an independent agricultural policy consultant on projects in the areas of domestic farm and risk management programs, environmental policy, federal agricultural budgets, domestic nutrition assistance programs, and international food security and agricultural development policy.
An Iowa native, Stephanie has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Iowa State University.
Mallory Weber
Next Generation Program Manager