Harvey James, professor of agricultural and applied economics, and associate director in the Division of Applied Social Sciences, was recently honored with the 2020 Richard P. Haynes Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award in Agriculture, Food, and Human Values from the Agriculture, Food & Human Values Society (AFHVS). The award honors persons, who in their careers, have made outstanding contributions towards realizing the goals of the AFHVS through research, teaching, extension, public service or public policy.

Nominations highlighted the impact of James’ research about fairness, trust, conflict, democratic governance and morality and his courses that focus on the ethical dimensions of agriculture and food systems. Additionally, nominations stressed James’ work from 2007 to 2019 as editor-in-chief of the Agriculture and Human Values journal.

From James’ award letter:

The AFHVS Awards Committee was impressed with your record of accomplishments in research, teaching, and service throughout your career at the University of Missouri as well as your exceptional service to our Society.

Your nominators spoke highly of your approach to economics as deeply connected with the moral questions of our time. In your research you have explored the “ethical dimensions of markets such as fairness, trust, conflict, democratic governance, and morality,” edited new books on the ethics of agricultural biotechnologies and competition in the agrifood system, as well as authored or coauthored over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous other publications. They noted that in your teaching, your courses address critical ethical dimensions of agriculture and food systems and that you strive to help your students gain the confidence to perform well in formal academic settings as well as become life-long learners.

Above and beyond all of your many accomplishments as a researcher and teacher, nominators were appreciative of your steady leadership and service as the Editor-in-Chief of the Agriculture and Human Values journal from 2007 to 2019, beginning at a rather tumultuous time. They wrote that your editorship “has been a model for any journal” and that “the selection of papers published in the journal has, from the beginning, spanned all of the social science disciplines and included frequent contributions by philosophers and historians, with the occasional submission by scholars of literature or cultural studies.” They note that “your judgment and your selection of reviewers not only cut across disciplines, but reflected high standards of scholarship, so much so that despite its comparatively narrow range of application to studies of the food system, this is actually one of the highest rated outlets for scholarship in social studies of science and technology, continually outpacing interdisciplinary studies journals with a medical, engineering, or information technology focus.” Another wrote that “it is hard to calculate the importance of this journal by standard measures since it is so rare to find journals that will publish this kind of groundbreaking work.”