David Garst (September 10, 1926 in Coon Rapids,

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

– January 9, 2006), was a

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

industry leader,

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...

, and former Executive President of

Garst Seed Company Garst Seed Company was a U.S.-based subsidiary of Syngenta that produced hybrid seeds for agriculture. In 1931, Garst and Thomas Hi-Bred Corn Company was founded by Roswell Garst and Charley Thomas in Coon Rapids, Iowa, and was "instrumental in ...

. He also worked in the

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

, and

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...

businesses, and contributed to foreign agricultural development projects in

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Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, and the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

. Garst believed that farming in the

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is fettered by governmental and

environmental regulation Environmental law is a collective term encompassing aspects of the law that provide protection to the environment. A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental Legal doctrine, legal principles, focu ...

. Garst was appointed by the

Carter Carter(s), or Carter's, Tha Carter, or The Carter(s), may refer to: Geography United States * Carter, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Carter, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Carter, Montana, a census-designated place * Carter, ...

administration to the Presidential Mission on Agricultural Development in Central America and the Caribbean. The work of this committee led to the

Caribbean Basin Initiative The Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), a trade initiative initiated by the 1983 Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA), is a United States program. The CBI came into effect on January 1, 1984, and aimed to provide several tariff and trade ben ...

passed under President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

. Garst helped to develop the

National Corn Growers Association The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is an association that represents and advocates for the interests of corn growers in the United States. It is distinct from the American Corn Growers Association, a competing organization set up in 198 ...

that promoted open trade with Communist countries and sends aid in the form of farming technology to developing nations. In the 1990s, under the Clinton administration, Garst lead the agricultural portion of a development project in the Staritsky district of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. The project included the development of a dairy industry, egg and broiler houses,

hog farm The Hog Farm is an organization considered America's longest running hippie commune. Beginning as a collective in North Hollywood, California, during the 1960s, a later move to an actual hog farm in Tujunga, California gave the group its na ...

s, packing plants, roads, and marketing systems. Garst was a leader in

Howard Dean Howard Brush Dean III (born November 17, 1948) is an American physician, author, lobbyist, and retired politician who served as the 79th governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 to 200 ...

's campaign in Iowa and was an active voice in the opposition to the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

. Garst married Georganne (Jo) Orenstein (October 9, 1928 – March 1, 1984) on July 12, 1949, and Marilyn Ann Shinn on March 23, 1985 (divorced 1996). He married Marilyn Reineke in May 2005. He was the son of agriculturalist

Roswell Garst Roswell "Bob" Garst (June 13, 1898 – November 4, 1977) was an American farmer and seed company executive. He developed hybrid corn seed in 1930 that allowed greater crop yields than open pollination, open-pollinated corn. He was perhaps most wel ...

and Elizabeth Henak. He is credited as bringing forth innovations that helped the corn market.

References

External links

Garst Seed Company homepage

at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

Obituary
from ''The Des Moines Register'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Garst, David 1926 births 2006 deaths Farmers from Iowa Businesspeople from Iowa Carter administration personnel