Since 2002, Wade Sperry has worked with local farmers and others in North Korea to improve availability of more nutritious foods (specifically apples and beef), assist in disaster situations with nutritional supplements and medicines, and share agricultural technologies. He has helped to host two groups of agricultural professionals from North Korea in the United States in agriculture technology and cultural exchanges.
Sperry's experience includes many years of agricultural, medical, and disaster related work in approximately 50 countries outside the United States. His international experience has focused primarily in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and in the Caribbean and Pacific Islands. This work has focused on agriculture, Neonatal Resuscitation, vision improvement training for local medical professionals, and natural disaster response. His education includes degrees from North Carolina State University (PhD), Utah State University (MS) and Brigham Young University (BS), all agricultural focused.
Sperry's relevant past experience includes 20 years employed with LDS Charities, three years with the University of Tennessee College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, and a lifetime of working with his family on various agricultural enterprises.
Currently, he manages the operations of over 50 charitable farms, ranches and orchards throughout the U.S. and Canada. Annually these operations produce approximately 108 million pounds of wheat and dry beans, 65,000 pounds of row crops, 176 million pounds of cattle feeds, 6 million pounds of apples, peaches and pears, 243,000 pounds of fresh vegetables, approximately 5,000 head of beef cattle, 4 million pounds of turkey, and over 280,000 donated labor hours by volunteers. These raw food commodities are used to help feed poor and needy families (primarily in the U.S. and Canada).