SECRETARY GLICKMAN APPOINTS 16 TO ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON EMERGING MARKETS

                                            Release No. 0232.97
                                                               
                                    Tom Amontree (202) 720-4623
                                             tamontree@usda.gov
                                  Carolyn Harris (202) 690-1851
                                           HarrisC@fas.usda.gov

SECRETARY GLICKMAN APPOINTS 16 TO ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON EMERGING MARKETS

     WASHINGTON, July 15, 1997--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman has
appointed 16 persons to serve on the Advisory Committee on Emerging Markets
from July 1, 1997, through June 30, 1999.  

     They are: 
     -    Jocelyn Cordice Basnett, owner, Cordice Marketing Services,
          Washington, DC; 
     -    John Cavanaugh, chairman and chief executive officer, Summit
          Limited, Nebraska; 
     -    Michael L. Cook, professor, University of Missouri-Columbia; 
     -    James M. Dawson, director, business development and government
          relations, American Breeders Service, Wisconsin; 
     -    Dominic DiMare, principal consultant, California Assembly
          Committee on Agriculture;
     -    Charles S. Johnson, executive vice president, Pioneer Hi-Bred
          Seed International, Iowa; 
     -    Stanley Krugman, former international science director, U.S.
          Forest Service, Washington, DC; 
     -    Mark R. Kuechler, president, MK Consulting Group, Virginia; 
     -    Morris L. Larson, executive vice president, Merchants Exchange
          St. Louis, Missouri; 
     -    Rob Paarlberg, professor, Wellesley College, Massachusetts; 
     -    Kristin R. Penn, international project development manager, Land
          O'Lakes, Virginia/Minnesota; 
     -    Russell Redding, deputy secretary, Pennsylvania Department of
          Agriculture; 
     -    Robert Ross, chief executive officer, Latin American
          Agribusiness Development Corp., Florida; 
     -    Willard Sparks, owner and chairman of the board, Sparks Co.,
          Tennessee; 
     -    Phillippe Villers, president, GrainPro, Massachusetts; and 
     -    Montague Yudelman, former agricultural director, World Bank,
          Washington, DC.

     "These appointees represent diverse areas of the nation and diverse
agricultural experience.  They will help us make U.S. expertise available to
emerging markets in order to develop, maintain, and expand markets for U.S.
agricultural exports," said Glickman.

     The Committee was authorized by the Federal Agriculture Improvement
and Reform Act of 1996 and replaces the Emerging Democracies Advisory
Committee created by the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of
1990.

     USDA's Emerging Markets Program, administered by the Foreign
Agricultural Service, emphasizes market access and targets emerging markets
in Asia, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Central and South America, and
the former Soviet Union.  These markets are lower income countries with
dynamic economies that offer high potential for U.S. export growth.

     U.S. technical expertise offered under the Emerging Markets Program
includes U.S. agricultural sector and joint venture assessments; market
information systems; development of commodity exchanges; and training in
importing, agricultural banking and credit, business planning, farm and
agribusiness management, sanitary and phytosanitary issues, and other
constraints to agricultural exports.  The U.S. private sector participates
in providing this technical expertise through grants, contracts, and
cooperative agreements.
     
     More information is available on the FAS Home Page at
http://www.fas.usda.gov.

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