HISTORY
In the Spring of 1996, twenty progressive producers, land-owners and agriculture-related businessmen in the St. Joseph area developed a local cooperative with primary objectives of expanding agricultural markets and providing a viable business that would stabilize the agricultural economy of the community. The concept was to pool the group's knowledge, production and resources to grow identity-preserved grains, focusing on research and the newest agricultural technologies. The company was called "AgraMarke" which stands for Agricultural Research, Administration, Marketing and Education.

In January of 2000, The Quaker Oats facility located in St. Joseph, Missouri became available for purchase. This sale included the building on a 38-acre tract of land, certain physical assets of the plant and selected processing and grain handling equipment. This location appeared to be a natural fit for the members of AgraMarke. The consolidated facility offered many advantages for the company including efficiency, safety and flexibility of the products produced. The company would be able to integrate the identity-preserved talents of AgraMarke's producers with a processing facility capable of keeping the grains segregated and thus targeting specific food uses. The relationship between producers and processing would enhance the traceability, efficiency and quality of food products.

AgraMarke pursued the purchase and created a new entity called Lifeline Foods, LLC (Lifeline). In June 2001, Lifeline assumed ownership of the former Quaker Oats facility and began renovation and operations. At the time of purchase, AgraMarke was comprised of 350 producers from the states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. The location was easily accessible to Interstate 29, Interstate 229 and U.S. Hwy 36 and had rail service via the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific.

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By 2004 Lifeline Foods had become a vertically integrated company built by its stockholders with a commitment to quality, reliability and trust. The company was leading the industry in identity preservation with the ability to track the grain from seed selection to the finished product. As a young company in a mature industry, Lifeline Foods emerged with a reputation as a relationship-oriented solutions provider with a focus on innovation. By addressing the needs of their customer, the company grew to become a strong competitor in the manufacture of corn-based food ingredients.

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With a never ending quest for improvement and efficiency, Lifeline's farmer owners decided to team with ICM, Inc in February of 2006 to capture immediate competency in both food and energy. ICM, Inc was a world leader in ethanol facility design and engineering and had grown to a position of prominence involved in 2/3 of the ethanol construction projects across the United States. ICM's expertise, industry knowledge and innovative capabilities supported Lifeline's ability to take advantage of the synergies between food and energy production. The efficiencies are shared with customers in the form of higher quality food products due to Lifeline's enhanced ability to select only the top quality portions of the kernel for ingredients at competitive prices.

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Today, the initial cooperative has grown from 350 producer owners to over 600. Lifeline is now positioned to strengthen their commitment to their customers in the food industry.