[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 179 (Thursday, December 10, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S8598]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                       TRIBUTE TO DR. CARL ZULAUF

 Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I wish to honor today the 
distinguished career of Dr. Carl Zulauf on the occasion of his 
retirement from the faculty of the Ohio State University.
  Raised on a farm himself, Carl's passion for agriculture began at an 
early age. His family's diversified farm raised livestock and crops. 
His connection to the land has remained a common thread throughout his 
life and career, and Carl hopes to use his retirement as an opportunity 
to refocus on his family's farm.
  With the seeds of interest firmly planted, Carl pursued his education 
in what he knew best: agriculture. First, where he earned a degree in 
Agricultural Economics at the Ohio State University and later at 
Stanford University where he obtained his PhD. Dr. Zulauf credits his 
upbringing on a farm as the foundation for his interest in 
strengthening our Nation's domestic farming and the special 
appreciation he has for the issues facing American farmers and the 
agricultural sector.
  Since 1980, Carl had been a pillar of OSU's College of food, 
agricultural, and environmental sciences. The depth and breadth of his 
research portfolio is impressive and includes dozens of peer-reviewed 
journal articles and over 1,000 articles developed for broader public 
consumption. Not just a researcher, Carl is a dedicated educator. 
Thousands of students have benefited from his teaching, leadership, and 
mentoring. Carl served as academic adviser to more than 200 students. 
For over a decade, he has been a faculty adviser for Ohio State's 
SPHINX Senior Honorary--which each year pays tribute to 24 students who 
``embody the highest ideals of scholarship, leadership, camaraderie, 
citizenship, and service at The Ohio State University.'' Additionally, 
he has helped organize programs with students to travel to China and 
the Czech Republic to study agriculture. As a professor, his interest 
in his students can be seen by the large number of farmers across my 
State that talk about their time in Dr. Zulauf's classroom. The dozens 
of accolades that have been awarded to him throughout his tenure at OSU 
serve as witness to his impact as both a teacher and scholar. Carl's 
many contributions are a reminder that the values of the SPHINX--
service, camaraderie, leadership, and scholarship--are not solely the 
domain of OSU's students.
  Beyond his exemplary work as a researcher and educator, Carl has been 
an engaged member of both Ohio's and the broader agriculture community. 
He has been a leader in the Ohio agribusiness community, taking part in 
a number of strategic planning committees. He continues to be a regular 
contributor to FarmDoc, a project of the University of Illinois at 
Urbana-Champaign, which serves as an online resources for farmers 
across the country.
  He inspired many students in his work at OSU, and one cannot fully 
understand Ohio's agricultural sector without knowing the name Carl 
Zulauf. However, his most noteworthy contribution to agriculture in the 
United States must be his work on farm policy. In 1985, Carl joined 
Senator John Glenn's office to help with agriculture policy, an 
experience he described as eye-opening. With his academic background 
and experience growing up on a farm, Carl brought an informed and 
diverse perspective. Though he went back to teaching following his time 
in Washington, Carl's time in Senator Glenn's office left an indelible 
mark and would guide his work on agriculture policy in the decades to 
come.
  One pivotal example of Carl's work on agriculture policy was for the 
2008 farm bill with the development of the Average Crop Revenue 
Election, ACRE, program, which represented a novel approach to risk 
management for our Nation's farmers. Carl worked with my office in 
2008, as well as the office of Senator Durbin, to draft legislation 
that would become the ACRE program. ACRE was based on years of research 
and conversations with farmers and some of the best minds in our 
agriculture industry. My staff worked on ACRE which later became the 
ARC, Average Risk Coverage, program--legislation that I worked on with 
Senator Thune and which we were able to include the 2014 farm bill. 
Over 90 percent of our Nation's corn and soybean farmers choose to 
enroll in the ARC program which will serve as a crucial safety net for 
farmers at risk of low yields and was the first revenue-based rather 
than fixed-price program. The overwhelming participation in these 
programs serves as validation of Carl's work and cements his reputation 
as a key architect of our Nation's food and farm policy. Carl's 
fingerprints will be on agriculture policy for many future iterations 
of the farm bill.
  From his tenure as a motivating and engaging professor at OSU to the 
role and voice he continues to play in Ohio and across the Nation as a 
leading thinker on the future of our farm and food policy, Carl has 
served as a resource guide and mentor for many. Thousands of students 
have benefited from his teaching, and thousands of farmers will benefit 
from his work that has informed our Nation's agricultural policies. I 
wish him the best in his retirement and applaud his contributions to 
his profession and thank him for his service to America's farmers, his 
university, and our Nation.

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