Tom Johnson, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri, was one of two recipients of the 2012 MU Provost’s Award for Leadership in International Education. The award recognize faculty who have provided outstanding leadership in strengthening MU’s international dimension. Johnson joined the MU faculty in 1997 as the Frank Miller Professor of Agricultural Economics. He accepted a joint…
Division of Applied Social Sciences ⋅ Page 22
Washington View
Econ class gives students look at agriculture policy process
At the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, Agricultural Economics 4230 is a nontraditional class that gives students hands-on ag policy experience. Part of that experience is a trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with the people who are really making agricultural policy happen.
Pursuing the Public Good
Whether the mechanism is a bulldozer or Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Christopher Fulcher wields tools for a singular purpose: to help people improve their communities. Fulcher, Co-Director of the Center for Applied Research and Environmental Systems(CARES) in the Division of Applied Social Sciences at CAFNR, launched his career in community development on the island nation of Nevis in the Eastern…
Culinary Connection
Nina Furstenau found her roots in Tunisia—a small North African country she had never been to before. “For the first time in my life I kind of looked like the people around me,” said Furstenau, who teaches food and wine writing in CAFNR’s Science and Agricultural Journalism program. Furstenau grew up in Kansas where her family moved from India when…
From a Few Acres to a Few Continents
FAPRI Director Pat Westhoff's small farm roots guide his global outreach in agricultural policy
When Pat Westhoff boarded the plane to fly from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Guatemala, it wasn’t just his first out-of-country trip—it was his first plane ride. Westhoff, the director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at MU and a professor in department of agricultural and applied economics in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR), grew…
Sewing Economic Success
Sometimes, small town skills lead to big places. For Judy Stallmann, an MU professor of agricultural and applied economics, rural sociology and community development extension in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (CAFNR), and public affairs at the Truman School of Public Affairs, the skills she gained growing up on a farm in Iowa helped launch an international career…
Changing the World: Eight Kilobytes at a Time
Eight kilobytes. It’s about the size of the Google icon on its homepage. Minuscule by today’s computing standards, in 1973 it was the ram size Keith Jamtgaard had to teach a programming language to engineering students in Ecuador. Jamtgaard, a research associate and professor in the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis (OSEDA) at MU, grew up in South…
A Global Pioneer
MU professor Jere Gilles builds bridges across cultures
Jere Gilles knew he wanted to serve in the Peace Corps before it even existed. “When I was in sixth grade I sort of thought JFK (President John F. Kennedy) stole the idea from me,” said Gilles, an associate professor of rural sociology in CAFNR’s Division of Applied Social Sciences. Gilles’ grandparents were homesteaders in Montana and he grew up…
Mizzou Globetrotter
Basketball skills launch a global career for MU Professor Mike Cook
A meat tenderizer is one of Mike Cook’s most prized possessions. It’s autographed, not by Jamie Oliver, Wolfgang Puck, or any other famous chef. It bears the names of the Garre family who gave it to Cook nearly five decades ago when he was their son’s basketball coach in Uruguay, where Cook served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1965-67.…
Big Screen Collaborators
CAFNR faculty are appearing on a Jumbotron near you
You may have noticed some friendly faces at MU football games this fall. Friendly CAFNR faces. On the big screen, no less. Just before the start of the football season, CAFNR Communications asked representatives from around the College to help us with a big project – in a short amount of time. This season, Buck’s Ice Cream became the official ice…