Steven L. Kopperud is executive vice president of Policy Directions Inc., a Washington, DC government affairs/specialty communications company specializing in animal production agriculture, nutrition, agribusiness, biotechnology, animal health and welfare, food, farm policy, trade and ag research and human health-related issues.
PDI’s clients include Fortune 500 companies, as well as national trade associations.
Mr. Kopperud was senior vice president of the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA), for nearly 18 years prior to joining Policy Directions. In that position he was responsible for all federal and state government affairs programs for the 700-company association, and was treasurer of AFIA’s Feed Industry Political Action Committee.
As a recognized authority on activist assaults on animal agriculture and food technology, Mr. Kopperud has spoken to audiences in the U.S., Europe, Canada, China, Australia and Latin America on threats to food production.
He coordinates the Washington, DC-based Farm Animal Welfare Coalition (FAWC), a national coalition of farm, ranch and input organizations involved in livestock/poultry production dedicated to ensuring public policy decisions by Congress and the Administration are based on science, fact and the rule of law.
Mr. Kopperud is founder and former president of the Animal Industry Foundations, now the Animal Agriculture Alliance, a national charitable education foundation dedicated to telling the American public the reality of modern livestock and poultry production and its contribution to the quality of life of the average consumer.
A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in journalism and political science, Mr. Kopperud is a former reporter with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the San Diego Union-Tribune. He is also the former Washington bureau chief for American Broadcasting Corp.’s (ABC) magazine/newspaper publishing division.
Married, Mr. Kopperud lives in Washington, DC.
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