Calendar of Events:
October 8
October 8
October 9-13
October 16
November 4-5
December 13
December 18
December 19 |
Seminar: Dr. Paul McNamara, University of Illinois, Kran 661 “Directions in Food, Nutrition, and Health Economics”.
ICEE – Annual Awards for Excellence in Economic Education
October Break
Homecoming: Purdue vs Wisconsin
Departmental Retreat
Final Exams Begin
Fall 2004 semester ends
Commencement
|
Congratulations and Names in the News:
On September 24 th , the Department celebrated the announcement of the Jim and Lois Ackerman Endowed Chair in Agricultural Economics at a special event held in the Krannert Drawing Room. Jay T. Akridge has been appointed the new James and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics .
Akridge, director of the Center for Food and Agricultural Business, also oversees the online dual degree program, which consists of a master's degree in business administration from Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and a master's degree in agribusiness from Purdue.
"His outstanding leadership in those areas has increased the positive impact of Purdue on the food and agricultural sector of Indiana ," said Sally Thompson, department head in agricultural economics.
The named professorship, made possible by a $1.5 million gift from the Ackermans of Carmel, IN, is the first endowed chair in the department. Purdue's Board of Trustees on Friday (Sept. 24) ratified Akridge's appointment to the professorship. James Ackerman earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural economics from Purdue in 1947.
Frank Dooley coaches a team of undergraduates, Erin Duff, Abbey Franks, Justin Mohler , and Nathan Taulman, who will participate in the Food Distribution Research Society's Case Competition in San Luis Obispo , CA , October 9-11.
On September 17, the Indiana Credit Union League, trade organization for Indiana 's 400 credit unions, presented the award for 2004 Credit Union Volunteer of the Year to Dr. Stephen Lovejoy for his work with Purdue Employees Federal Credit Union as well as his strategic planning work with numerous credit unions and state leagues in over a dozen states. Dr. Lovejoy was also a contributor to CUNA's Effective Directors Handbook and has been interviewed dozens of times for stories in the credit union press on technology, CEO evaluation and Board of Directors recruitment, retention and motivation.
Thought You Would Like To Know:
The Department welcomes Dr. Bruce Erickson. Bruce Erickson joined the Department of Agricultural Economics as a Visiting Assistant Professor September 20.
Bruce has B.S. and M.S. degrees in agronomy from Iowa State University , and a Ph.D. from Purdue. Bruce's Ph.D. work at Purdue was jointly funded by NASA, utilizing remote sensing data to assist in crop management, and the American Society of Agronomy, where Bruce developed the competencies, exams, and continuing education for the International Certified Crop Adviser program. In the last few years Bruce has been designing and developing technical, educational, and marketing programming for agricultural clients.
Bruce is working closely with Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer to organize and implement the Top Farmer Crop Workshop, maintain the Site Specific Management Center , and assist with other crop management extension duties.
On October 22 nd , the Earl Butz Auditorium in Pfendler Hall will be dedicated. The invited guest speaker is alumnus, J.B. Penn, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services. There will be a President's Council dinner held that evening.
The Indiana Council for Economic Education will be holding its Annual Awards for Excellence in Economic Education on Friday, October 8, 2004 at The Fountains in Carmel . The program honors those educators, students, Centers for Economic Education, and community leaders that excel in teaching and promoting economic education in our great state of Indiana .
Otto Doering will be serving as the Natural Resource Conservation Service's Senior University Fellow for the coming 7 months in Washington D.C. He will be back at Purdue in early May to teach AGEC 602 in Maymester.
While on sabbatic leave with the World Bank, Thomas Hertel participated in the following:
In cooperation with the United Nations University, the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) presented a seminar discussing WTO and the Challenges for Trade-led Growth Based on a recent UNI-WIDER publication "The WTO, Developing Countries and the Doha Development Agenda."
When the Uruguay Round was being negotiated and it was coming to a close, a number of estimates were made about the impact of the agreement on poor countries. Many of the assessments indicated that there would be a net loss for them while others came up with a more positive scenario. Now that the agreement has been in place for several years there is scope for an empirical assessment of the issue to identify the winners and the losers ex post. On the basis of this assessment, the study makes recommendations to improve the participation of the least developed countries in international economic policy regimes, in particular the WTO. The speakers presented and discussed the WTO study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) and address continuing controversies that surround these issues.
Chaired by: Yvonne M. Tsikata
Lead Economist, Operations Evaluation Department, World Bank
Presented by: Basudeb-Guha Khasnobis
Director, WTO Impact Project, UNU-WIDER
Thomas W. Hertel
Distinguished Professor and Executive Director,
Center for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University
AGRINEWS article: Purdue helps rebuild agriculture in Afghanistan :
When most people think of Afghanistan , they think of a war-torn, barren land ruled by warlords and the Taliban. But, for one Purdue University professor, Afghanistan is a country full of good people and the promise for a thriving agriculture industry.
As a young man in the mid-1970s, Kevin McNamara volunteered for the Peace Corps. He was assigned to Afghanistan , where, because of his background in business administration, the Peace Corps recruited him to work with the development of an agriculture banking system. The country was a far cry from central Ohio , where he grew up on the outskirts of Columbus . However, to McNamara, “it just seemed like an interesting location and an interesting opportunity.”
During his stay from 1972 to 1974, Afghanistan was recovering from five years of serious drought. Its agriculture-based economy was struggling. “About 80 to 85 percent of the gross state product was from agriculture, about half from livestock and half from crops,” McNamara said.
Additionally, about 80 percent of the population was employed directly with agriculture. However, during this time, “the country seemed to be doing pretty well -- the agriculture economy was recovering, and I think the outlook was pretty positive,” McNamara said. While McNamara admitted he was “pretty green around the ears back then,” he traveled throughout the country and enjoyed meeting people.
The Afghan people were friendly and happy to see help coming in, he said. McNamara learned how to speak the language and worked a lot with farmers. Most of the farmers in Afghanistan are subsistence farmers, who produce wheat as a staple. On top of wheat, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, grapes, pomegranates, peaches and apricots also are produced. When there is extra of these crops, they would be sold or traded, especially grapes. Vegetables such as okra and onions also are grown, but there are not a large amount of vegetables grown in the country.
In the 1970s, there was a large sheep industry in Afghanistan , with some of the people still working as nomads. Donkeys, cows, camels and horses also might be found on a farm, with oxen still being used for plowing. Most farms would have been only a few acres, all of which probably would be irrigated because of the dry, sandy soils.
When McNamara finished his time with the Peace Corps, he came back to America , received his graduate degree and worked as a regional economist. “I thought that perhaps I would work in development internationally, but I ended up focusing on domestic development issues,” he said. As for Afghanistan , the climate in the country changed drastically. A few years after McNamara left, a Communist regime took over the government. After that, Russia invaded and took partial control of the country. The people of Afghanistan constantly were at war with the Russians, until Russia pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989. During this decade-long war, the country was left in disarray. “The Russians would go into a valley, and they would cut the orchards off at ground level, burn everything and destroy the irrigation system,” McNamara said.
Unfortunately, the destruction in the country gave way to more chaos when a civil war broke out in the wake of the Russians' departure. From the early 1990s to 1996, the country again was at war. “The capital city was in constant warfare,” McNamara said. “Not much has been repaired until very recently.”
In 1996, the Taliban movement swept the nation. The group promised an end to the fighting, something that sounded very promising to the war-torn country, McNamara said. “Afghans were tired of constant fighting,” he said, adding the people, however, probably did not realize the social repression the Taliban would enforce. When the United States intervened in the country, the Northern Alliance assumed control. Today, a transitional government is trying to redevelop the country, which is a huge task after so many years of war, McNamara said.
In 2002, McNamara went back to the country for the first time since the 1970s. Since then, he has been back to Afghanistan several times in an effort to get the country back on its feet. He is able to use his knowledge of the country and the language to help the United States work with the Afghan people. “There is a group of us at Purdue that are trying to work with Kabul University to rebuild the facility of agriculture,” McNamara said. The process is slow, and higher education is low on the list of priorities for a country with little money that also is trying to rebuild security, water systems, housings and healthcare.
Along with his work with Kabul University , McNamara also is trying to help the country establish markets for crops and rebuild agriculture. Fortunately, the country is embracing help from outside sources. “People are very hospitable, very friendly, very happy to see the outside forces that came in and got rid of the Taliban,” McNamara said. “For the average Afghan, things have improved so much.” In the future, he will continue his work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. State Department to try and find funds to rebuild Kabul University and the Ministry of Agriculture. “I am optimistic that, in the next several months, we will actually have some resources that we can begin to use,” he said.
Travel, Speeches and Presented Papers:
Lusk, J.L. “Consumer Demand for A Ban on Antibiotic Use in Pork Production.” Invited research seminar presented at the University of Maryland , September, 2004.
Will Masters will be traveling to New York on October 11th for the inaugural meeting of the Advisory Board for his initiative on prizes for innovation in African agriculture; details of the proposal are on his website, www.agecon.purdue.edu/staff/masters .
Wally Tyner was in Morocco September 11-25 as part of a Purdue project there. He participated in the FTA Caravan sponsored by the U.S. Embassy to explain the Morocco – U.S. Free Trade Agreement. The Caravan covered 8 cities in 6 days, and had numerous TV, radio, and print media contacts. There were also numerous presentations to business leaders, government officials, and university students. Publications:
Bongiovanni, Rodolfo, and Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer, “Precision Agriculture and Sustainability”, Precision Agriculture , 5(2004):359-387.
Lusk, J.L., L.O. House, C. Valli, S.R. Jaeger, M. Moore, B. Morrow, W.B. Traill, “Effect of Information about Benefits of Biotechnology on Consumer Acceptance of Genetically Modified Food: Evidence from Experimental Auctions in United States, England, and France.” European Review of Agricultural Economics . 31(2004):179-204.
Lusk, J.L. and J.D. Anderson, “Effects of Country-of-Origin Labeling on Meat Producers and Consumers.” Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics . 29(August 2004):185-205.
New Innovation Center Publications:
Ehmke, C., J. Fulton, J. Akridge and S. Linton, Industry Analysis: The Five Forces . EC-722.
Marshall , M., Defining Your Business Through Goals and Objectives: First Steps for New Entrepreneurs. EC-727.
Visit the AICC (Agricultural Innovation and Commercialization Center ) website for information on business planning: www.agecon.purdue.edu/planner .
Job Announcements:
http://www.fao.org/VA/vac_en.htm Commodity Specialist – FAO – Rome http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/hr/lsjobs.htm
California State University, Fresno: Ag Marketing and Agribusiness Management
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City – Center for the Study of Rural America: Research Associate
Texas A & M University: Two positions
Rutgers University: Assist Professor
Colorado State University: Assistant Professor, Natural Resources Economics and Regional Economics
Michigan State University: Assistant Professor, Livestock Economist
K-State Research and Extension: Farm Management – Colby, Kansas
CSRESS Economics Position: International Trade Specialist www.ars.usda.gov
Michigan Beef Industry Commission: Marketing Position
The Todd and Barbara Bachman Endowed Chair in Horticultural Marketing Department of Horticultural Science, University of Minnesota, College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, St. Paul, Minnesota Purdue Extension Service: see website listed below
Career and Job Sites on the Internet:
Keeping
Track Monthly Newsletter Archive
|
