Policy & Law
Aug. 19, 2026
Elliott Dennis
Elliott Dennis is an agricultural economist whose research focuses on livestock, poultry, and meat markets. His work examines how livestock are priced and marketed; how producers can manage price volatility; and how issues of production and policy affect producers, processors, and consumers. Through applied research, market analysis, and outreach, Dennis develops practical decision tools and educational programs for livestock and poultry producers and meat processors. His research also supports industry stakeholders and public-sector decision-makers, including State Department of Agriculture, Commodity Groups, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, by informing policy and market-related decisions across the livestock and poultry…
Aug. 18, 2025
Shokhrukh (Shok) Jalilov
Shokhrukh specializes in agricultural and environmental economics, water economics and policy, integrated water resource systems, and the water–food–energy nexus, with a focus on the complex interactions between biophysical and economic systems. His research employs theoretical, empirical, and numerical approaches and involves close collaboration with experts from diverse fields, including engineering, hydrology, soil science, and plant science. Before joining the University of Missouri, he worked at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia’s national science agency), the Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability at the United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan, and Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland.
Aug. 14, 2024
Alejandro Plastina
Plastina is the Director of the Rural and Farm Finance Policy Analysis Center (RaFF) at the University of Columbia-Missouri. His area of specialization is agricultural production and technology, with an emphasis on farm business and financial management. He has received multiple awards, including the 2023 Iowa State University (ISU) ANR Extension Team Award, the 2023 Outstanding Choices Magazine Article Award from the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association, the 2022 Dean’s Citation for Extraordinary Contributions to the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the 2021 Farm Foundation Agricultural Economics Fellowship, the 2021 ISU Office of the President Excellence…
Nov. 2, 2022
Adrienne Ohler
Dr. Adrienne Ohler is FRI’s Associate Director of Policy Research and an Associate Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Missouri. Her research and teaching focus on environmental, energy, and water economics, with particular emphasis on regulatory economics, energy policy, water quality, and utility systems. Her work examines how public policy, institutional design, and technological change shape energy and water security, environmental quality, infrastructure resilience, and economic outcomes. Her research includes energy markets, advanced metering and residential electricity demand, water quality, distressed water systems, and the non-market valuation of environmental amenities. Using a combination of econometric…
July 13, 2021
Rui Yao
Rui Yao’s research focuses on consumer and family financial decision-making and well-being. Specific topics include financial resilience, debt management, saving and investment behavior and motives, risk tolerance, financial capability, consumption patterns, employment-leisure decisions, as well as mental and physical health outcomes of financial events. Her interdisciplinary work targets at providing implications to stakeholders of consumer and family well-being and impacted millions of consumers and families through her publications, presentations, and media interviews. She received the best paper award from the CFP Board, AARP, American Council on Consumer Interests, and American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences. She is the…
Jan. 21, 2021
Ben Brown
Educational background…
Sep. 26, 2018
Robin M. Rotman
Educational background…
Feb. 25, 2018
Mary K. Hendrickson
Hendrickson is Professor in Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri and serves as Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security. She is a rural sociologist whose passion is making the world a better place through food. As Director of the ICFS, she focuses on building resilient, food secure communities across Missouri and beyond. Hendrickson has been a leading scholar on consolidation and concentration in the food and agriculture system, the impacts of such a system on farmers, workers and communities, and new ways of conceptualizing policy responses around anti-trust. She is also recognized for her work examining…
Aug. 27, 2017
Julian Binfield
Binfield has over 20 years of policy analysis experience with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute. Over that period, he has used dynamic partial equilibrium models to analyze a range of policies including trade policies and domestic support policies, as well as the impact of external factors such as weather and changes in the macroeconomy. He has coordinated several long-term research projects with international colleagues in Europe and Africa. Binfield teaches two policy related undergraduate classes and advises at the postgraduate level at the University of Missouri. Educational background Courses taught…
Aug. 8, 2017
Michael Sykuta
Michael Sykuta, PhD, is an economist working at the intersections of organizational economics, industrial organization, new institutional economics, public choice, and law. His work ranges from issues in agribusiness and agrifood value chains to energy policy and public utility regulation. He is Executive Director of the Financial Research Institute (FRI), whose programs focus on public utilities regulation and utility industry issues, and Director of the Center for Rural Energy Security (CRES), which focuses on federal and state energy policy and its implications for rural America. Sykuta is an affiliate scholar with the International Center for Law & Economics and…