Board Member Spotlight: Paul Palmby
Each member of the Farming for the Future Foundation’s board of directors brings advanced knowledge in agriculture, education or the state of Wisconsin. We’re honored to have state experts informing and guiding our path forward and know that each member is crucial in deepening the relationships between people, their food and growers. Check in each month to meet a member of our team and learn about their role in the future of farming.
Get to know Farming for the Future Foundation: Board of Directors Member Paul Palmby
Agriculture pulses through Paul Palmby’s veins.
“Agriculture and vegetable processing are really the only thing I know,” he said.
Palmby, the current President and Chief Executive Officer of Seneca Foods, has been involved in agriculture for his entire life. He grew up on a dairy farm in Southern Minnesota, ran a cow calf and row crop operation with his brother, earned a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Business from Iowa State University and has spent his entire professional career in the industry. His first job was even working in agriculture.
“I started out in high school working in the canning industry,” Palmby said.
Throughout the years, Palmby has served in various roles with Seneca Foods including fieldman, Director of Operations, Vegetable Division President, Executive VP and COO and now President and CEO of the company.
The opportunities he has been given in the industry have kept him interested and engaged in agriculture, he said.
“I have never really had a desire or reason to leave agriculture or food business,” Palmby said. “It really is all I know.”
Palmby said he was thrilled to join the Farming for the Future Foundation because he feels an obligation to help educate those who are not involved directly in the industry. With less than 2 percent of the US population being involved in agriculture, Palmby said there is a deep need to help educate and reconnect people with their food.
“I believe in the mission,” he said. “It is admirable and needed. I was honored to be asked.”
He has served the industry in a variety of capacities. He has four times been appointed by the United States Secretary of Agriculture to USDA’s Fruit and Vegetable Advisory Committee representing the processing industry. He has testified in the U.S House of Representatives on Farm Bill matters relating to the fruit and vegetable industry. He has been a supporter of the Wisconsin FFA on a personal basis as well as through his company and has served on the Wisconsin FFA Foundation Board as well as the Wisconsin FFA Sponsors Board including Chair of the latter.
He said there was no question whether accepting the board position with FFTFF was the right move.
“It wasn’t a question of whether I should do it, it was really a question of ‘how could I possibly say no,’” he said.
Palmby currently resides in Janesville, Wis. with his wife Barbara. He is the father of three children. He hopes to remain in Wisconsin someday after his retirement, and in the meantime wants to help make it the “best place to live and work,” he said.
