Wesley Wayne Ward

The grass doesn't grow long under Arkansas Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward's boots.

Just 32 when appointed to the job -- his first in state government -- Ward had by then served two tours of duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, earned a law degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville and worked for a congressman.

Two years later, Ward is as earnest, enthusiastic and grateful as ever for the opportunity, which he admits came with some feelings of trepidation.

"There have been a lot of those moments, especially in the first few months," Ward says, adding that he feels "a lot of responsibility. People's lives and careers are depending on us."

Ward isn't a farmer or agriculture executive, as were his two predecessors. But those who know him say he's a quick study who won't be outworked or deviate from doing what he thinks is right.

"He's one nice young man, a hard worker and brutally honest," says Marvin Childers, president and chief lobbyist for the Poultry Federation. "Part of it's his military background. He's very methodical, and you're not going to find Wes doing anything that's not by the book or by the law."

"I would say he's really diligent -- that's just one thing I respect about him," says Lauren Ward, his wife. "He's constantly working to improve things, whether he's fighting for his county or the agriculture industry."

The agriculture department promotes and regulates the state's biggest economic sector, worth an estimated $20 billion a year or nearly a quarter of all economic activity in Arkansas. Some 530 people work for the department -- about two thirds for the Arkansas Forestry Commission, with most of the rest split between the State Plant Board and the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission.

Lining a windowsill in Ward's office a row of gimme caps attests to the industry's diversity in the state. The hats sport logos from producers of, among other things, poultry, rice, beef, soybeans, the universities that train agriculturists and more. Maps on the wall break down the regions devoted to forests, row crops and more. While Arkansas' prominence in the poultry and rice industries is well known, Ward likes to point out that the state ranks among the top half of states in the production of more than 23 commodities.

"We do a lot of things really well," he says.

AN EAGERNESS TO LEARN

Ward's father is a Baptist preacher, and his mother is a registered nurse. He spent his early childhood in Little Rock and Conway before his father took over a church in Lake City, a town of about 2,000 people along the St. Francis River in northeast Arkansas. Ward was in the third grade.

His family didn't farm, but Ward says he picked watermelons and peas as a boy and "grew up next to a cotton gin. Lake City is nothing but agriculture."

He jokingly blames this three sisters for his joining the Marine Corps after high school. "I had to get away from them," he says.

The real reason, he says, was that he was drawn to the discipline and toughness he believed the Marines would instill in him, as well as the opportunity to experience something beyond northeast Arkansas. "It was an eye-opener, no doubt about it," he says of basic training in San Diego. "I had never really been away from home."

He was stationed in Missouri and then in the office of the Marine Corps commandant at the Pentagon in Washington, starting there in October 2002 -- just over a year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "Everybody I worked with was there when it happened," he says.

Ward worked on the commandant's administrative staff, helping plan meetings, trips and other events.

"I think that's where I learned what leadership looks like and the amount of time that's required," he says of the generals and other officers he worked for. "They sleep, but they don't sleep very often."

Ward also observed that most of the Marine Corps leaders were what he calls "lifelong learners," with advanced degrees and a thirst for books. He took night classes, earning an associate degree in management. Finishing active duty with the Marines in 2004, Ward returned home and got the rest of the credits needed for a degree in agriculture from Arkansas State University at Jonesboro. Friends persuaded him to go out for the rodeo team. "I was really horrible, actually, but it was a lot of fun."

Ward then crossed the state to earn his law degree from the UA School of Law, motivated by what he saw as the demand for lawyers in the military and agriculture. Then and now a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, he attended officer candidate school during the summers.

Ward returned to active duty with the Marines in 2009, as a captain and battalion judge advocate with an infantry division that operated in Afghanistan and Jordan. His role was to advise commanders on the rules of engagement and armed conflict, "very frequently" while the battles were taking place.

More than just the experience of war made an impression on him, he says. "I wish people would see Third-World places where people don't have anything. It certainly makes you appreciate being an American."

BUDDING POLITICIAN

Ward finished his second tour of active duty in 2013, then went to work for U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican who represents the 1st Congressional District. "We have a lot in common," says Crawford, who's also a military veteran and the son of a preacher. "He found himself being raised in a small community and developed a passion for agriculture like me. We didn't have the resources to go into production," but both "wanted to work in and around it."

Ward worked on agriculture issues in Crawford's Arkansas district office and in Washington, giving him a head start on his current post. "Arkansas' 1st District is probably a composite sketch of total agriculture in the state of Arkansas," Crawford says. "We have forests, row crop production, we have poultry and we have cattle. He's got a handle on all of that."

Ward also obtained an advanced degree in agriculture and food law from UA. In 2014, he ran as the Republican candidate for Craighead County judge against Ed Hill, the Democratic incumbent. He lost with 43 percent to Hill's 57 percent. Ward says the result "wasn't as close as I would have liked" but he is glad that he and Hill "never attacked each other. Even to this day, if Ed Hill called me, we'd have a good talk."

The campaign helped bring Ward to the attention of Asa Hutchinson, who was conducting a successful race for the governor's office that fall. In March 2015, Hutchinson nominated Ward for the post of agriculture secretary. Ward says he and the governor "didn't have a long history together" but do have a few things in common, including law degrees.

"I think he appreciates an eagerness to learn," Ward says.

Headquartered on Natural Resources Drive in west Little Rock, the Agriculture Department was created in 2005 under then-Gov. Mike Huckabee. It combines three previously separate agencies -- the Arkansas Plant Board, Livestock and Poultry Commission and Forestry Commission -- that now operate as divisions.

Ward is the department's third secretary. Each of the divisions has a director and board of its own, and Ward says those "subject matter experts" are mostly responsible for day-to-day operations and regulatory affairs. The secretary reports to the governor and has traditionally concentrated on marketing the state's agricultural products and carrying out overall policy. "I'm kind of a step back," he says, focused on issues such as the department's budget and legislation that affects the state's agriculture producers.

About 30 percent to 40 percent of the state's agriculture products are exported, and that's an area where Ward believes there could be significant growth, although the department pushes domestic sales as well. Ward has made foreign trade trips to Cuba, Ghana and the Dominican Republic. Cuba, where he has been twice, is seen as a particularly lucrative market for poultry and rice. During trips there, Ward says, "We ate rice and poultry every single meal."

"And they're literally in our backyard," he adds. "Right down the Mississippi, we can have rice there in three days."

But federal trade restrictions with Cuba still limit how much Arkansas producers can sell there. At a National Governors Association meeting with President Donald Trump, Ward says, Hutchinson "was the only governor that talked about agriculture to the president. That's a big part of our state. Export markets and trade are so important."

Childers, the poultry federation executive, says Ward "has done a great job promoting" the state's poultry and eggs, which account for 44.5 percent of agriculture sales in Arkansas.

In Cuba, Childers notes, "We sold more chickens after Wes and the governor were there and we believe it did have a positive impact."

RUNNING TOWARD THE FIRE

Also on the second Cuba trip, in April last year, was the former Lauren Waldrip, who works in public affairs at Noble Strategies in Little Rock, representing rice producers and other agricultural clients. She and Ward were married in September at First Baptist Church in Marianna.

In Cuba, she says, "A lot of the meetings we had were together, when we'd meet with their minister of agriculture, or go to a co-op and see exactly what that looked like. I'd say for both of us it was interesting to see each other working on something that could be pivotal not just for the United States but specifically for Arkansas agriculture."

Lauren, who's from Moro, says the couple had known of each other since Ward attended law school with her older sister but didn't begin dating until they worked together on projects involving the Agriculture Department.

She says both she and Wes grew up in families that had three girls and a boy, love to hunt and fish and share a deep religious faith. She tells a couple of stories that indicate you can take a man out of the Marines, but maybe not the Marines out of the man. On one occasion, she says, they were dressed up and walking into the annual Marine ball when she reached out to hold his hand, only to have him pull it away and pretend to be adjusting his outfit.

"I said, 'What is wrong with you?' He said they're not supposed to show public displays of affection when around other Marines. I said that would have been good to know."

Then last Thanksgiving, when something caught fire in the oven at her sister's house, Ward quickly put it out with a towel. "My grandmother said when he ran toward the fire, she knew he was a keeper."

Lauren tells one more story about her husband and his boots. She'd been trying to get him to buy a new pair but he resisted, arguing that his well-worn footwear was not only comfortable but just might help him relate to folks as agriculture secretary. Until the day, that is, when his boss the governor gave the old boots "a funny look."

"He said 'That's it, we're getting new boots,'" Lauren says with a laugh.

Ward found out during this legislative session that doing the governor's bidding isn't always easy. A bill that would have placed more power in the agriculture secretary's hands at the expense of the Plant Board -- at least according to the bill's critics -- was pronounced dead by Ward in March. He says the measure had been misinterpreted and was intended to simply streamline operations as part of Hutchinson's overall goal of making state government more efficient.

But he and the governor will continue to try to make changes for the better, Ward promises.

"I feel that's my responsibility, to help him doing that. We can't be satisfied with the status quo. Change isn't easy, but that's what our industry deserves -- the very best."

High Profile on 04/02/2017