Fryar, Reed Earn Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Alumni Honors

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Left to right: Ed Fryar and Nathan Reed

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Ed Fryar of Ozark Mountain Poultry and Nathan Reed of Reed Farms have been named alumni award winners for 2015-16 by the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

Fryar is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award and Reed the recipient of the Young Alumnus Award.

Fryar, who earned his bachelor’s degree in economics and his master’s degree in agricultural economics from the U of A, is president of Ozark Mountain Poultry. He earned his doctorate in agricultural and applied economics from the University of Minnesota and was a professor of agricultural economics in the Bumpers College for 13 years. His areas of research were grain and poultry marketing, and price risk management.

In 2000, Fryar co-founded Ozark Mountain Poultry in Rogers. OMP is a vertically integrated poultry company specializing in producing chickens raised without antibiotics or animal by-products. The company, which has more than 1,500 employees at facilities in Rogers, Batesville, Warren, Bay and Newport, also raises Heritage chickens fed non-GMO grains.

Fryar, who has more than 40 years of professional experience in agriculture, has served on the Council of Economic Advisors for the governors of Arkansas since 1983. In 2010, he served as treasurer during Steve Womack’s campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. A member of the Fayetteville School Board in the 1980s and 1990s, he is currently a member of the Agribusiness Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Reed earned his bachelor’s degree in agricultural business in 2002 and his Juris Doctor in 2005. He is the owner and operator of Nathan B. Reed Farms, a farming equipment ownership entity, and Eldon Reed Farms Inc., a row crop farming corporation.

He and his wife Kristin own and operate N&K Reed Farms and Palmreed Inc., both row crop farming entities.

Reed also serves as state chair and board member of American Cotton Producers, is a member of the Cotton Inc. board of directors and vice chair of the Arkansas Cotton State Support Committee. He is a member of the Arkansas Agriculture Council board of directors and the Bumpers College Dean’s Executive Advisory Board.

Kristin is also a U of A graduate, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting. The Reeds were named Arkansas Farm Family of the Year in 2014.

Fryar and Reed will be honored on Monday, Oct. 12, at the department’s event on current issues regarding global food security. “Preparing for 21st Century Policy Choices” begins at 5 p.m. in Hembree Auditorium in the AFLS Building. Several political and food industry leaders are speaking, including Fryar and Reed. The alumni award presentation is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. followed by a reception on the Maudine Sanders Student Plaza and Garden and Hawkins Family Terrace.

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Register online.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.