This article first ran as the cover story in the May-June 2025 issue of Soybean Business. Click here to read the digital issue. 

Imagine a small-town Minnesota farmer finding himself in a restaurant, down a hidden alley in a foreign country once at war with the U.S.   

Now picture this farmer working with local organizations to help improve the farm economy through voluntary agricultural work. This was the reality Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council (MSR&PC) Director Gene Stoel found himself in.  

“I graduated from high school the year the Vietnam War ended,” said Stoel, who lives near Lake Wilson. “My first trip to Vietnam, when I told people I was going there, there was a lot of people in my community saying, ‘Why do you want to go there? We just got done fighting a war there.’ It was 20-30 years later, but still. The people you meet all want to make a better life for the next generation and I don’t see that as being any different than what we do here.” 

Stoel’s experience representing District 7 on MSR&PC helping direct soybean checkoff investments made impacts internationally, as well as in his own community.  

“Gene Stoel’s dedication to the soybean industry and Minnesota farmers is exemplary,” MSR&PC CEO Tom Slunecka said. “He’s always taken the time necessary to not only volunteer to do things, but to understand the issues that are necessary to make the events effective. Gene has been a consummate provider of not only time but direction to all the staff here at Minnesota Soybean and we thank him so much for his dedication and the hours that he spent making us a better organization.” 

Where it began 

Before Stoel found himself in that restaurant in Vietnam, he worked at a grain elevator and on his family farm. He never thought his story would involve helping fellow farmers at home by promoting soybeans around the world.  

Stoel started when MSR&PC Sr. Director of Product Development Mike Youngerberg and then Minnesota Soybean Growers Association (MSGA) Director Gary Ness walked into the elevator Stoel worked at to talk about the new soybean checkoff program. 

This one visit led to Stoel’s involvement with both MSGA and MSR&PC and more than 20 years later, Stoel couldn’t imagine it any other way.  

“I didn’t have any idea I would be around this long, but I stayed on because I like working with the people that have the same passions about producing soybeans, moving soybeans, opening new markets, that kind of thing,” Stoel said following his penultimate board meeting as a MSR&PC director. “Being part of this organization has given me opportunities to see parts of the world I never thought I’d ever see.” 

His first role with Minnesota Soybean was on his local Murray County Corn & Soybean Growers Board. Stoel was chosen as the board’s MSGA state representative where he served as a director for a few years before he was encouraged to run for the Council.  

“If you’re going to grow it, you need to promote it,” he said.  

First elected in 2007 to MSR&PC, Stoel has since worked with dozens of board members and served in myriad capacities at the state and national levels.  

“He was one of the first board members I met really well, he was a great resource for me,” Council Chair Tom Frisch said. “He’s always a steady opinion and brought different perspectives and opinions to the board.” 

Diligent work 

Stoel served as chairman, vice chairman, treasurer, research chair and on various committees for the Council, with two standing out to him: research and communications.  

“When I first came on, I always questioned why we needed to do seed research,” Stoel said. “Why do we have our own soybean breeders? It was explained to me very well by Jim Orf – he was the soybean breeder at the time – who said, ‘We do things that the companies don’t.’ Plus, he said someone has to teach soybean breeding to the next generation so that they can go to work for those companies. That made a lot of sense to me, and since that time, I’ve been a very good advocate of soybean breeding research at the University of Minnesota.” 

Research work is one of his proudest achievements on the Council and working on the North Central Soybean Research Program (NCSRP). Stoel attributes his colleague, the late Rob Hanks, for getting him involved with NCSRP. 

MSR&PC-funded research is one-third focused on today, one-third focused on the next five years and one-third focused on five years and beyond in pest management, genetics and other agronomy. In fiscal year 2024, with Stoel as chair of the research team, they worked on waterhemp and giant ragweed management, soybean stem diseases, soybean breeding and genetics and many more projects.  

To Stoel, research is about improvements for farmers but it’s also about communication between farmers and researchers. How to articulate what farmers are seeing on their farms and what challenges they need to address and how researchers can share their findings in a clear way.  

He will finish his Council term in July as chair of the research action team. One of his last meetings as chair, the team heard proposals from potential researchers and approved 20 proposals for the 2025 fiscal year.  

Stoel also helped oversee the Council’s internal communications task force, helping to direct award-winning campaigns with the DieselSellerz, Goodyear Tire, and the launch of MSR&PC’s website.   

Stoel said it was eye-opening to work on communications to learn consumers perceptions of farming.   

National leadership 

Stoel’s leadership efforts went well beyond the region: He later served U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance and the United Soybean Board (USB). 

While on USB, he’s worked with directors from all around the country, gaining new perspectives and production practices.  

Through USB, he’s been a part of national research, his passion in the soybean world.  

“I’m representing soybean farmers from around the country in the research we do, in the things we’re trying to accomplish,” he said, “so if it’s not good for the majority of the soybean farmers, it’s not something I should be promoting at a real hard level.” 

Working on the national level has provided insights to new perspectives, insights and friendships he never thought he would make. And Stoel isn’t entirely done directing checkoff funds: He’ll serve out the remainder of his third and final USB term, which runs through 2025.  

Global growth 

From Morocco to South America to Southeast Asia, representing soybean farmers on international trade missions was another unexpected way to impact farmers in Minnesota for Stoel.  

When he returned to Vietnam around 12 years after his initial trade mission, he said he didn’t recognize the country, which now has a growing middle class, greater tech advancements and high demand for U.S. agriculture products.  

“It was fun to see how much they wanted to talk to people from the U.S. and trying to work with them,” he said. “I do think we make an impact on making sure U.S. Soy is the preferred feedstock around the world.”  

Stoel said a universal language he’s heard around the world is an eagerness to improve for the next generation. He saw the strive to get the younger generation involved in the decisions and how hungry they were for the knowledge of what to do next. 

“When we’re looking for new markets, I see Uzbekistan now as what Vietnam was back when I first was there,” Stoel said. “They want to adapt the U.S. production system because they see it works great. They also visit Europe. Europe has some great production systems, too, and we don’t do everything correct in the U.S., nobody does, so having that open mind. … They want to evolve, and they want to improve.”  

Landing home 

That small-town farmer, sitting at that restaurant down the hidden alley wouldn’t believe what he’s accomplished today, as he returns home to Murray County to enjoy his retirement from MSR&PC.  

“I’m old enough now to walk away, to know better and know it’s time, and I’ve done what I want,” Stoel said, “It’s time for the younger generation to take over.”