Trent Loos to be guest speaker at Ag Expo Banquet
By Anna Foster
Ag Expo Correspondent

Portales, NM—This year's New Mexico Ag Expo, sponsored by Hamilton Automotive Group (GM Country, Big Country Ford) and Plateau Wireless , will start off the 2005 events with the annual banquet, slated for Monday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. at the Eastern New Mexico University Campus Union Ballroom sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank and hosted by Farm Bureau and ENMU.

Trent Loos, a well-known speaker, writer and radio/television personality in the agriculture world, will be the banquet's guest speaker.

A native of Quincy, Ill. , Loos is a sixth generation farmer who got his start in the business at the age of five by raising swine. He expanded his operation, in conjunction with his father, to a purebred seedstock company supplying boars and gilts to producers across the country.

Loos earned an American Farmer Degree in Future Farmers of America and won numerous awards at state and national swine shows. He went on to work in many areas of the pork industry, from family seedstock supplier to managing a state-of-the-art multi-site unit. In addition, he coordinated a group of independent producers into an alliance that marketed nearly 2 million hogs annually. In 1990, Loos expanded his operation to include purebred Limousin , Simmental and Angus cattle. Horses were added to the mix in the late 1990s.

In 2001, Loos began to share his knowledge and experience of production agriculture with the world, when he launched "Loos Tales" a radio talk show on KMZU in Missouri . Today, 3 million listeners on 100 radio stations, including locally by KSEL in Portales, hear the show daily.

"Faces of Agriculture" was founded in 2003 by Loos and his wife, Kelli, along with a small group of producers who were motivated to convince consumers that the abundant supply of safe, healthy food eaten in this country is produced by real people on "farms and not created in factories."

The website for the non-profit organization features news items, producer profiles and activist outdates at www.FacesofAg.com. Locally, readers may read Loos' commentaries in the "High Plains Journal." His "Loos Lips" daily e-newsletter updates readers on the most current issues happening in regard to food production – typically centered on anti-ag activist groups, bio-terrorists and other attacks on the agriculture industry.

Loos travels the country to unearth stories about the people involved in the many different facets of agriculture and to spread the word about food producers in the United States.

His audiences vary greatly in age, background, mission and profession, but they all come away enthused about bridging the gap between food producers and consumers. His presentations may be moving and motivational or designed to teach farmers, ranchers and commodity groups how to deal with the media. He also addresses groups about their role in the future of agriculture.

Loos is excited about coming to the New Mexico Ag Expo. "I really look forward to the meeting in Portales," he said. "I have never been there. KSEL has been airing my show for about a year and a half, so I look forward to meeting the people in the area."

Contact the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce for ticket information. If you are a Farm Bureau member you can purchase discounted tickets at their office.

For more information about the New Mexico Ag Expo, call the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce at (505) 356-8541 or (800) 635-8036, e-mail at chamber@portales.com or log onto the Expo web site at www.nmagexpo.com.

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