Inside D.C.

Sad news to share with readers

I learned today of the death of Brownfield’s Inside D.C. author, Steve Kopperud. Steve was wicked smart, one of the best wordsmiths I’ve had the opportunity to know, and a friend.

Steve died unexpectedly on Monday, October 19, 2020. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Judy and the Kopperud family.

Steve’s official bio for Brownfield is below.

Steven L. Kopperud is principal in SLK Strategies, Inc., a Washington, DC government affairs/communications company specializing in animal agriculture, nutrition, agribusiness, biotechnology, animal health/welfare, food, farm policy, trade and ag research issues. SLK Strategies’ clients have included Fortune 500 companies, as well as national trade associations. Mr. Kopperud is the former executive vice president of Policy Directions Inc., a government affairs consulting firm, as well as former senior vice president of the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) prior to joining Policy Directions. At AFIA, he was responsible for all federal and state government affairs programs for the 600-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 and how to handle them. 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.

Mr. Kopperud also serves as a member of the board of trustees for the Texas-based Feeding the Real World, a foundation dedicated to using emerging technologies to find solutions to global hunger challenges. 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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