Madeline Mellinger founded Glades Crop Care, Inc., an independent agricultural consulting firm, in 1972 and is the company’s CEO. Together with her husband, Crop Care’s Technical Director, Madeline pioneered implementation of prevention-based IPM systems in several crops, saving Florida farmers millions of dollars reducing volume of pesticides needed to bring high-quality crops to market. Crop Care has worked with clients in developing state-of-the-art management, food safety and worker protection systems, and has won wide acclaim for its efforts to credibly document linkages between IPM adoption and reductions in the use of high-risk pesticides.
She has served as an advisor to the U.S. Congress, National Academy of Sciences, the Environmental Protection Agency, the federal and state Extension Service and various universities. Beginning in 1992 she was appointed by three successive U. S. Secretaries of Agriculture to the National Sustainable Agriculture Advisory Council which reports directly to the Secretary. She was elected chairman for two years.
Since 1997, Madeline has served as the appointed UF delegate to the Council for Agriculture Research, Extension, and Teaching (CARET) of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, and she is presently the liaison to the Extension Committee on Policy. She was invited to join the Florida Ag Council in 1999 and is serving her second term as President. She serves on UF advisory boards for the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, Everglades Research and Education Center and the Assistant Vice President for Marketing and Communications. She has three times been a Florida delegate to the National Leadership Seminar since 1999. She worked as co-chair of UF’s strategic planning committee, Florida First, and in 2001 co-chaired the second statewide meeting.
Madeline has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Citrus and Vegetable Magazine since 1996. She served for five years on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Agricultural Consultants. In 1991 Madeline was President of National Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants, and she served on the Board and held other offices for seven years. Glades Crop Care, Inc., was selected as a founding Supporter of EPA’s Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program, and for the past three years received its Champion award. She was a founding member of the Foundation for Environmental and Agricultural Education (FEAE) and is serving her second year as President. She and her husband have been called the “godparents” of the UF Doctor of Plant Medicine Program by the program’s first director, Dr. George Agrios. They remain ardent supporters, especially, through FEAE.
In June 2001, Madeline was elected to The Farm Foundation’s Bennett Agricultural Round Table. She received the Florida Extension Services’ Service to Agricultural award in September 2001. CSREES inducted her into their first Hall of Fame, in 2004