The states ethics board later unanimously dismissed the complaint, noting that the position Rastetter held on the commission is one reserved for farmers. So I asked to be appointed to the regents.". Along the way, hes tried his hand at investing, including helping build and sell a craft beer-company. Asked about the potential perception that he failed at two industries and still came out ahead, he scoffs. Then theres Stine. According to Politico, between 2003 and 2015, Rastetter spent $500K on federal campaigns and $1.1 million on state-level politics. A graduate of the University of Iowa, Rastetter holds a bachelor's degree in political science. "Regent Rastetter is pushing an agenda of treating Iowa's universities as corporations rather than institutions of higher learning," said Evan Burger, of the U.S. Student Association, an organization that advocates for student issues. Rastetter is an active philanthropist and has served as an advisor and member of several boards, including the American Agriculture and Energy Council, AltEnergy, Cultivation Corridor, Iowa Premium Beef, FS Bioenergia, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, Iowa State Universitys College of Agriculture and Rural American Fund. Some still infringed and faced legal confrontation if caught, but largely the strategy worked. And I wanted to do something that would make a difference. If you ask political observers in Iowa about Rastetter, the term kingmaker inevitably comes up, but Rastetter and his allies dispute the idea. Net Worth: $600 Million. "I got really busy and pretty independent, and I kind of do what I want to do," he said. Twice. He was raised near Alden, Iowa, on a 320-acre farm that grew corn and soy and raised hogs and cattle. But while genetic modificationusing biotechnology to insert a genetic trait into a seedgrabs headlines (and stokes health fears, despite overwhelming scientific evidence of safety), traditional breeding programs by seed developers have done just as much to raise yields. Weve worked a lot in that space but also in the design of the plants and equipment, says Robert Fraley, Monsantos chief technology officer, who has been doing business with Stine since the early 1980s. By breeding corn seeds genetically predisposed to thrive when planted in high densities, he thinks he can supercharge the engine generating animal feed, biofuels and food for the whole planet. And now, Rastetter is getting up close and personal with the presidential hopefuls in full view of the media and other deep-pocketed donors. "Everyone can have an impact on our political system in different ways. ICCI plans to protest Rastetters corporate ag summit next week. He isnt bashful about what his small-town company has accomplished. "I'd raise half the equity capital, and they would build the plant in Iowa Falls," he said. @MarcoBattaglia Everyone needs to start refusing to use ethanol blends. He launched Hawkeye Energy Holdings, rapidly growing it into the third-largest pure play ethanol company in the country helping to pump billions of gallons of corn-fuel into Americans gas tanks before selling to a Koch Industries subsidiary in 2011. Its very simple. But times called for change. These results are automatically generated from Google. But the joke, conducted amid full view of his empire, serves as a playful reminder: Harry Stine, the dyslexic farm boy turned cunning negotiator, data savant and agriculture visionary, is on top of the world. [2] Hawkeye Renewables was followed by Hawkeye Gold Ethanol Marketing Group in 2008. "It was a life-changing event for me," he said. 7. Owner: rastetter, bruce l Tax Year: 2017 Tax Amount: $7956 Total Market Value: $542,990 +Edit Neighbors View All Past Address Crescent, IOWA FALLS, IA 50126 View Address Owner: rastetter, bruce l Tax Year: 2010 Tax Amount: $3156 +Edit Past Address 10640 Highway D20, Alden, IA 50006 View Address +Edit Past Address He needed to diversify. "I kept thinking, there's got to be somebody else," Branstad said. James Marsden - Net Worth, Age, Height, Family, Biography 2023, Anthony Pompliano Net Worth Phone Number, House Address, Wiki, Ashley Massengill Net Worth | Bio, Family, Address, Career, Atlas Monroe Net Worth | Age, Height, Weight, Dating And More, Beyonce S Net Worth Phone Number, House Address, Wiki, Blue Ivy Net Worth Phone Number, House Address, Wiki. Having conquered pork, Rastetter then turned his sights to ethanol. Your email address will not be published. Copyright 2023 Surperformance. Rastetter has long been known in political circles for his annual summer party, an A-list Republican event complete with pork on a stick that sometimes attracts national conservative figures like Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal. He is quiet but fierce. But, even more, they see Rastetter as a symbol of the intensive, increasingly consolidated agriculture industry that rules and too often pollutes Iowa an issue thats come to a head recently as Des Moines water utility pledged to sue three ag-heavy counties over allegations farm runoff has overloaded the citys water supply with dangerous nitrates. Jimmy Buffett is an American singer-songwriter, author, and businessman who was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi. I OWA CITY, Iowa (AP) Iowa Regent Bruce Rastetter on Thursday defended working with Iowa State University to pursue a large-scale land development in Africa that could . $25 per post at a $5/CPM. "When you see him at fundraisers with top Republicans, it raises a whole lot of concerns. Theres always wrinkles in his science and negotiations that catch you off guard, says Monsantos Fraley. U.S. Congress | "If our parents taught us anything growing up on a small farm, we should get better in life, and we should improve in what we do. It shows a superior foresight.. | We have to make sure that not only is the education affordable, but it brings the value for what the students and parents are paying.". He's clearing the air a bit on a cold February day in his CEO offices of Summit Group, his multinational agriculture, investment and energy corporation near Alden. "People who aren't successful don't," Rastetter said. Aside from whatever financial ties exist, Ryan and Rastetter are close allies. His experience in the hog industry taught him there was a time to go to market, he said. Terry Branstad was a decade removed from a record 16 years as governor. Were willing to give Stine the benefit of the doubt for a simple reason. When Branstad appointed Rastetter to the Iowa Board of Regents in 2011, Rastetter became an ally of Lang, then the board president. Stine Seed does business with all of the heavyweights and has for more than three decades, primarily because it has something everybody else needs: the best-performing soybean seeds in the business. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. He also possessed a canny, fluid mental aptitude for data and math. He is cautious. His term expired in 2017. Bruce Rastetter is not amused by the "kingmaker" label often thrown around by the press. Once home to his fathers hardscrabble cattle-and-crop farm, Stine has, without attracting any widespread notice, developed some of the most valuable agricultural products on Earth here. YOU HAVE 5,000 FOLLOWERS. Rastetter counters that students should be happy. It wasnt a coincidence: As early as the 1970s Stine, who had taken one business law class at McPherson College, a small liberal arts school in Kansas, was stipulating in contracts the royalties companies had to pay for using his seed and prohibiting them from using the seeds their harvest produced to plant for next season. Along with his four children, Stine owns almost 100%. Its an event designed to promote farm policy in a state where pigs outnumber voters 10 to one, but its also a bold display of the political power Rastetter has amassed and a reminder to candidates that his endorsement would be a big get ahead of the Iowa caucuses. It's part of modern agriculture.". William Rastetter owns over 12,375 units of Neurocrine Biosciences stock worth over $4,596,714 and over the last 20 years he sold NBIX stock worth over $1,559,850. "That would probably be something at one point that I wished had not happened. Currently, he holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of Summit Group, Chief Executive Officer & Director at SCS Capital LLC (a subsidiary of Summit Group), Chief Executive Officer at Summit Agricultural Group and Senior Advisor at Tiger Infrastructure Partners LP. He has faced other questions about the ties between businesses under the Summit Group's umbrella and university research on his farm, and about no-interest loans from ISU's Iowa Energy Center for wind turbines. Theres always going to be a certain amount of jealousy, said Branstad. Hawkeye went on to build two more plants in Menlo and Shell Rock, and Rastetter maintained his management team. Stine, the 72-year-old founder and owner of Stine Seed, the largest private seed company in the world, built this tower back in 1987 so he could get a good view of his empire, some 15,000 acres of. his Basic income source is mostly from In the coming days, Rastetter will be narrowing down what questions hell ask the candidates on March 7. Disclamer: Bruce Rastetter net worth displayed here are calculated based on a combination social factors. And, of ultimate importance, substantially increasing a farmers harvest. Its not my opinion that matters, its the candidates, he said in a phone interview. Its a long-running gag hes played on acquaintances, business competitors and even his wife, Molly, who had suffered the misfortune of the elevator actually breaking and had to climb down the ladderin heels. Hog production is a cyclical industry, and, ultimately, prices tanked. Even if the process has grown more involved and advanced, the strategy behind breeding has changed little in ten millennia. State legislature | Hes currently the CEO of Summit Group, a diverse company that operates in corn, soy, cattle, international farm real estate and private equity. He stated, "Mergers like this have the potential to put into motion irreversible damage to agriculture."[9][10]. A tall man partial to Levis and blue button-downs with pens in the pocket, Stine stands on the burnt-orange carpet in his officea little-changed artifact of the Reagan era littered with the nuts, berries and, especially, mushrooms he likes to forage for (he has a handwritten log detailing when and where hes found each of the 32,000 morel mushrooms hes nabbed in recent years). The seed marketa $44 billion worldwide industry that supplies crop growers with the essential element they use to plant, harvest and sustain the worlds food supplyis expected to double in the next five years as crops fortified with more resilient genetics improve yield and efficiency. In 2004, Rastetter sold the company to Christensen Farms, making it the fourth largest pork player in the country. They think, How can this be? Schlieman Operating Partner. If you really want to be fair here, you need to go get two more [lawyers], he smirked. "In the farm crisis days in Iowa, it was almost life-threatening for some people because they took it so hard that they didn't have success.". The Register political team includes Kathie Obradovich (@KObradovich), Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs), Jason Noble (@JasonNobleDMR), William Petroski (@WilliamPetroski), Brianne Pfannenstiel (@BrianneDMR), Josh Hafner (@JoshHafner), Annah Backstrom (@AnnahBackstrom) and Carol Hunter (@CarolHunter). He is always ready for a good fight," said Craig Lang, his friend, fellow agribusinessman and former regents president. Justin Kirchhoff President - Summit Ag Investors. It's one Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz gave him in 2013. William Rastetter owns over 20,000 units of Neurocrine Biosciences stock worth over $4,315,690 and over the last 20 years he sold NBIX stock worth over $1,559,850. A prolific political donor, Rastetter has spent millions on federal, state, and local politics over the past two decades. The estimated Net Worth of William H Rastetter is at least $6.55 Million dollars as of 1 April 2022. I don't view it as being a kingmaker. The National Journal recently wrote about him with the headline, "When This Man Calls, Republicans Come Running," accompanied by a photograph of a herd of elephants. 5. Many people ask this question about the money Bruce Rastetter makes from Twitter. He couldn't stop hog and ethanol prices from plummeting, he said, but he could make sure his employees were paid through it all. ", "He's tough but fair," Peterson said. Through plant breeding, a roughly 10,000-year-old technique thats not unlike creating Thoroughbred horses or show dogs, Stine has been perfecting the genetic makeup of soybean seedsprimarily used in animal feed and to produce vegetable oilssince the 1960s. Bruce Rastetter, an agribusiness mogul who's made a fortune in pork, ethanol and farm real estate, has long worked behind the scenes to help bankroll conservatives across the country, but. We dominate genetics in the industry.. Agriculture and energy reporter Donnelle Eller (@DonnelleE) also will provide coverage. Who knows if it will last one more time? he chuckles. [1], In 1994, three years after the birth of his first company, he consolidated his feed management, construction, and swine projects into Heartland Pork Enterprises. YOU HAVE 10,000 FOLLOWERS: While he wants to broaden the discussion, theres no doubt the candidates will still be pressed on where they stand on the Renewable Fuel Standard. While juggling such concerns as a regent, Rastetter keeps busy as CEO of the Summit Group, which has farming operations in the U.S., other investments and plans to build an ethanol plant in Brazil. He started by selling seed, making cold calls, holding lunch and dinner meetings and riding on the tractor with older farmers who advised him to diversify investments. Please only use it for a guidance and Bruce Rastetter's actual income may vary a lot from the dollar amount shown above. With a combined market value of $320 billion, five publicly traded conglomerates own most of the action: Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Dow and Bayer. The would-be candidates and people in their orbit have been calling Rastetter and his team asking for help as they mull their positions on the issues. Rastetter said it was unfortunate that the deal unraveled. J.D. With more than 900 patents, Stine sells his coveted soybean and corn seed genetics to agri-giants like Monsanto and Syngenta, nabbing estimated annual sales of more than$1 billion with margins in excess of 10%. According to Forbes and industry experts' latest study, Bruce Rastetter estimated net worth is more than a couple of million USD. Mr. Rastetter is the founder and CEO of Summit Agricultural Group, a leading agribusiness and renewable energy firm with operations in North and South America. Knowledge of those diagnoses was all but nonexistent at the time. And also embracing success and encouraging people to try.". Norm Coleman but no longer gives to the group. He said Rastetter held meetings that promised an increased tax base, productions with little smell and a rising price for local farmers' corn. RT @JennUWinn84: @SiegelScribe Sounds like a conflict that would have @IAGovernor Kim Reynolds shaking in her corporate puppet strin https://t.co/FcMCag6iME, @SiegelScribe Sounds like a conflict that would have @IAGovernor Kim Reynolds shaking in her corporate puppet strin https://t.co/FcMCag6iME. Hes loathed by liberal community activists who believe hes leveraged his money into political power for personal gain. Abby Blome I've never believed in looking back other than there should be new experiences and new things you do in life.". I understand how folks could look at him that way, he said. He also has given money to the University of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa, and has an exhibit building named after him after a $1 million contribution to the Iowa State Fair. Back in 2011, he tried to get Chris Christie in the race, at one point flying a handful of Iowa heavy hitters out to New Jersey to appeal to the governor in person. Brent maintains relationships with many people -- family, friends, associates, & neighbors -- including Karli Rastetter, Zachariah Rastetter, Bruce Rastetter, Julie Rastetter and Clifford Gryte. Jimmy Buffett. 6. It also helped secure Stine, in 1997, one of the most pivotal and lucrative deals in agricultural history. The fund began with the acquisition of 56 farms across four states and generated income from lease income and capital appreciation. Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Previously only asexual plants like rosebushes or apple trees could be patented, not self-pollinating crops like corn and soybeans. Rastetter says the media treats people with a double standard. At almost every location they plant them, he says, his seeds outperform any other variety. Meet Bruce Rastetter, the man behind the Iowa Agriculture Summit, which is drawing 11 presidential hopefuls to Iowa March 7. He slowly upped his contributions to Republican causes beyond the state in 2008, giving tens of thousands to Karl Roves American Crossroads and the National Republican Senatorial Committee over the past few cycles. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. He floated the concept to Rastetter last fall when the two were at a Hawkeye football game: We were tailgating and talking politics, he recalls, pointing out that Iowa hosts lots of forums for presidential candidates, but theres never been one focused on agriculture despite the sector representing a third of the states economy. Sure, there were odors associated with it. But this cycle, hes taking a different approach. Number one, we contained the manure, and two, we used it as a nutrient (spreading it on fields for fertilizer). FORBES estimates that Stines companywhich, among other things, also breeds corn genetics, creates plant traits in its biotech lab and has a small but growing commercial seed sales operationis worth nearly $3 billion. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. He recalls Bruce came to town and made a lot of promises to the community about good jobs and economic growth. Bruce Rastetter net worth 513 Thousand Millions of dollars 75% Net worth score Disclamer: Bruce Rastetter net worth displayed here are calculated based on a combination social factors. Bruce Rastetter Chief Executive Officer. Stine Seed was first in line to get its top-performing varieties patented. Its an unusually public gig for a donor: Rastetter will chat with each candidate on-stage for 20 minutes before 1,000 Iowans and dozens of media outlets. In early 2015, Rastetter brought a number of 2016 Republican presidential candidates to his Iowa Agriculture Summit for face-to-face public interviews. And you sit next to me. "But the more I thought about it Bruce was one of those people who encouraged and supported me." Rastetter, 58, can engage deeply on business issues, but rips through his childhood background quickly during an interview. And apparently a lot of people working in the same industry cant see that. His achievement has been built on a foundation of hard effort. Long before that, Rastetter had already had a very good day. But, as a consequence of his learning disabilities, Stine always worked slowly and carefully. Those qualities he has have enabled him to do in business what he has done. [5] In early 2015, Rastetter, with the help of Iowa governor, Terry Branstad (R), brought Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee. Now heres whats going to happen. The conventional spacing of corn rows has also largely persisted at 30 inches or more in modern agriculture, with narrower rows in use on less than 5% of corn acres in North America as of 2012, according to rival DuPont Pioneer. He is blunt but can be prickly at perceived slights. [4] In 2011, Rastetter was also appointed to the state of Iowa Board of Regents, which was followed, in 2013, with an appointment to the Iowa Premium Beef board. "The alternative is you don't do anything. The cables look awfully frayed. The event, the Iowa Agriculture Summit, included Rastetter interviewing, on stage and before an audience, each presidential candidate.[5]. "Bruce is a brilliant guy. All rights reserved. The company supports capital investments with strategic private equity partnerships and manages agricultural assets, including extensive beef, pork and grain production facilities. To pay for the change, youd need at least an immediate 10% yield improvementand 20% to 30% to really benefit a farms bottom line, estimates Bruce Rastetter, CEO of Summit Group, which grows corn and soybeans on 20,000 acres of land in Iowa and Nebraska. A friend once described a gathering for a well-known Texan who went bankrupt. Markets never sleep, and neither does Bloomberg News. In 2014, he joined the board of Cultivation Corridor, an ag-bioscience firm. Just how much pull does Rastetter have? That means most of the biomass is using valuable resources that dont necessarily improve a farmers yield. A second plant was built in Fairbank, and Rastetter was soon heading Hawkeye Energy, a firm that became Iowa's largest ethanol producer. After graduating from McPherson in 1963, he did two quarters of graduate work at Iowa State, then went home to work on his fathers modest farm. It is a good reminder to those tempted to confine innovation solely to the world of Silicon Valley that some of the most impressive and fundamentally important advances on Earth are occurring today in agriculture, and the global epicenter is Americas heartland. The basic technology may be ancient, but an innovative, data-savvy strategy, married with shrewd leadership and a classic midwestern work ethic, has made Stines operation best in class. But Rastetters moves over the past decade look like a how to guide for becoming a political power player, with far more influence than other wannabe Iowa kingmakers. Rastetter also has a connection to Nick Ryans 501(c)(4), American Future Fund, which pulled in more than $13 million from Koch-backed Freedom Partners in 2012. "Everything he told us was a lie," he said, contending the confinements stunk so bad that he had to move to Colorado for health reasons and that Rastetter trucked most of his feed to Davis County from his own mills. Counties | This time, the candidates will all come to him. The svelte and piercingly blue-eyed Rastetter can be enigmatic. [1] Rastetter was also helped by Nick and Jill Ryan, the former runs the American Future Fund, a 501(c)(4) that "pulled in more than $13 million from Koch-backed Freedom Partners in 2012. State and local courts | Last summer, Chris Soules, the current star of The Bachelor who happens to work for Rastetters Summit Group as a real estate broker was reportedly in attendance, rubbing elbows with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. [4] He serves on governing and advisory boards of a variety of organizations, including Cultivation Corridor, AltEnergy LLC, Rural American Fund, American Agriculture and Energy Council, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, and the college of agriculture at Iowa State. This story appears in the April 13, 2014 issue of Forbes. Your email address will not be published. "It's part of the reason I got into politics," Rastetter said. "We were fortunate on the timing of it. Many people ask about the amount of money The Kentucky Headhunters makes from Instagram. Rastetter's name is synonymous with fights as a leader in three tender subject areas in Iowa large-scale agriculture, ethanol production and education funding. Overnight on Wall Street is morning in Europe. Bruce is the kind of person who never forgets a friend.. Its going to be the way of the future., Not everyone buys what Stine is selling. His was the first company in the industry with soybeans to structure licensing agreements so that when companies took a contract with him they could not breed, says Philippe Dumont, a lawyer and seed industry veteran who has spent the past decade working for Bayer. Bruce Rastetter is the CEO and founder of the Summit Agricultural Group, an agribusiness based in Iowa. It's a competitive world, but you've got to take time for people around you because life can change in an instant.". Harreld, who starts as president Monday [November 2], visited Cedar Rapids in early June to attend a meeting with Board of Regents President Bruce Rastetter and Jean Robillard, UI's vice president of medical affairs and chairman of the UI Presidential Search and Screen Committee. He declined to discuss undisclosed giving to other political causes. Disclamer: the number about Cody Decker's Instagram salary income and Cody Decker's Instagram net worth are just estimation based on publicly available information about Instagram's monetization programs, it is by no means accurate. In his younger days, he had a fleet of jet skis that he and his brother Brent took out on the Iowa River with friends. Rastetter also got plenty of help from Nick Ryan, a major Iowa operative, and his wife Jill Ryan, Santorums former deputy campaign manager. Required fields are marked *. Heartland suffered multimillion-dollar losses in three of its last five years before being forced in 2004 to sell to Christensen Farms out of Minnesota. But a fancy biotech trait offered limited value if the genetic base of the seed was inferior and overall yields suffered. His disabilities were actually advantages that let him see things in ways others did not. Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, anchored live from London, tracks breaking news in Europe and around the world. Our germplasmour genetic base hereis the best in the world, says Stine. Asked about Rastetters annual shindig, Branstad, whos attended the last several years, gushed that the event is emblematic of Rastetters loyal personality. He previously served as president of the Iowa Board of Regents, working on initiatives across the Regents system, which consists of more than 27,000 employees, 80,000 students and an annual budget of $5.6 billion. For Klicker, Rastetter is the poster boy for everything thats wrong with big pork. Harrys breeding for it, says Van Wiebe, an agronomist with Hefty Seed in Buhl, Idaho, who has seen a 30% difference between Stines seed and those of his rivals in his experimental fields. But at the very bottom of it all, he has made a huge difference in the industry and hes done it in his very unique and special way., As we stand high atop his tower, the wind streaking into us, unique and special seems a vast understatement. Stine flipped the conventional wisdom on its head. Anchored by Anna Edwards and Mark Cudmore, Bloomberg Markets Europe is a fast-paced hour of news and analysis, building towards the drama and excitement of the start of the cash trade across the continent. On it are printed the scores of wins against Nebraska and Michigan. His rise to the status of one of the worlds wealthiest people is a direct result of this success. He is a very caring, sincere individual who doesnt ever forget somebody, he said, noting that Rastetter invites a broad range of people, from folks he went to Sunday school with all the way through the people on Wall Street. How to run for office | As of April 2023, Robert De Niro's net worth is estimated to be $500 Million, making him one of the richest actors of all time. Chris Christie as a potential presidential candidate. Rastetter said Summit Farms followed the same application process for the loans as everyone else. It was a party. Follow live coverage Saturday from the Iowa Ag Summit at DesMoinesRegister.com/AgSummitLive. "It doesn't mean you ought not try. After seven years of genetic tinkering hes won plenty of converts. In 2011, Rastetter came under scrutiny after Branstad appointed his brother Brent Rastetter whose company Quality Ag builds large scale hog facilities to the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission. A highly-courted donor, Rastetter has steadily and strategically built his personal and political brand over the past several years. He both shuns the spotlight and seeks it. With Hawkeye, that was 2006. In early 2015, Rastetter brought a number of 2016 Republican presidential candidates to his Iowa Agriculture Summit for face-to-face public interviews. Many people ask this question about the money Bruce Rastetter makes from Facebook.