May 3, 2021
Clover Adams to lead Michigan Asparagus

The Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board named Jamie Clover Adams as its new executive director effective May 10.

Clover Adams brings more than 25 years of state and federal food and agriculture leadership and policy experience to Michigan’s asparagus industry, according to a news release from the group. Most recently, she served America’s farmers and ranchers as Farm Production and Conservation Chief of Staff under former USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue.

Prior to that, she served for nearly six years as the Director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development – the first woman appointed as department director, according to the release. She has worked in various roles throughout her career, including the Michigan Senate, and as Secretary of the Kansas Department of Agriculture from 1999-2003. She is a farm girl from the small town of Saranac in Michigan’s Ionia County.

“We are very excited to have Jamie serve as our executive director at this critical time for Michigan’s asparagus industry,” Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board Chairman Dwight Fuehring Chairman said in the release. “Her agriculture experience in Michigan and at USDA put her in a great position to work with the MAAB members to move our industry forward.”

Clover Adams takes over from John Bakker who is set to retire as executive director after serving the asparagus industry for nearly 20 years.

Above, Jamie Clover Adams, left, attended a Feb. 1, 2018 Michigan Farm Bureau event headlined by Sonny Perdue, then U.S. Agriculture Secretary. Photo: Stephen Kloosterman