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Today's Featured Biography

Steve Savage

I chose a major in biology and soon became interested in the plant classes. Between that and books like Population Bomb I decided I wanted to be involved in feeding the world and get involved in agriculture. While working on a paper I read about a field called Plant Pathology – the study of the diseases of plants. Knowing little about it I applied a graduate program about that at UC Davis. I ended up in the lab that worked on grapes – not exactly a feed the world crop, but it was a soft landing in the world of agriculture with all my field research being in the Napa Valley.
When I finished my Ph.D. in 1982 there were almost no academic jobs because of the recession. The only one I could find was one with Colorado State at a remote experiment station near Grand Junction. I was only there for 2 years. My area of responsibility was tree fruit, but there was already an experimental vineyard on the research station, so I did an evaluation of the potential wine quality of its 35 different grape varieties and I helped organize the Colorado Wine Grape Growers Association. I loved being able to get back into the mountains and did a lot of cross country skiing. A good job came up working for DuPont in fungicide discovery, so we moved to Delaware. It was a good experience overall and our first two kids were born there, but in 1989 a headhunter called about a job with a start-up biocontrol company based in San Diego and that was a pretty easy choice. I worked for that company until it was sold in 1996 and then launched off to a consulting career through connections from an old Stanford friend who had also gone into agriculture.
I’ve never had a regular job since 1996 or a commute! Around 2009 I started blogging because I was concerned about all the disinformation out there about farming and its supporting technologies. That eventually led to a significant speaking business throughout the US and Canada, and eventually to a job as a “crop protection technology benefits communicator” for an industry association which was mostly about doing a podcast called POPAgriculture. I now consider myself “semi-retired” and I do freelance writing as a contributor to Forbes and for a website called Genetic Literacy Project. I’ve discovered an interest I never knew I had in doing arts/crafts using plant materials such as Eucalyptus bark and oatgrass stems. I hike 3 days a week on l https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensavage/2023/07/21/reasons-not-to-take-chocolate-for-granted/ocal trails and I do a lot of gardening.
I have three kids, grand daughters 8 and 13 years old who live in Singapore, and one grand daughter on the way who will be in California. I got to go skiing in Vail last December with my son and granddaughters – that was my first time back to Colorado for a long time.
I’m really looking forward to reconnecting with classmates at the reunion this October!

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