Mark Fowler, president of Farmer Direct Foods.

NEW CAMBRIA, KANSAS, U.S. — Farmer Direct Foods, Inc. (FDF), a producer-owned cooperative stone-ground milling operation, has appointed Mark Fowler president.

Fowler previously served as the associate director of the IGP Institute at Kansas State University. Fowler takes over from Kent Symns, who retired in December.

In addition, the staff transition includes Justin Howie, who has assumed additional responsibilities as facility manager, due to the retirement of Marcia Walters, director of operations. FDF has relocated its corporate office from Atchison, Kansas, U.S., to New Cambria, Kansas, U.S. The move allows the company to consolidate operations to better meet the needs of customers, according to Fowler.

“Through our reorganization, we have been able to focus on improving our production efficiencies, which has increased our production capacity 30 percent. Our on-site facility manager has helped strengthen this production capability,” said Fowler. “These improvements have led to expansion opportunities that offer diversity in our products. We recently commissioned a processing line for teff flour and will explore opportunities to process other ancient grains. We continue to build on our strong foundation of processing identity assured hard white and hard red winter wheat products, in partnership with our cooperative members in Kansas and Colorado.”