Purdue guest lecturer: Global changes could affect U.S. ag

April 5, 2013  


Robert Zoellick

Robert Zoellick
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Global economic changes and the rise of developing countries likely will require changes to U.S. farm policy, says a former World Bank president and the featured speaker at Purdue University's James C. Snyder Memorial Lecture on April 12.

Robert Zoellick, who also served as U.S. deputy secretary of state and trade representative before becoming senior fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, will tell his Purdue audience that the United States can take full advantage of future international agricultural opportunities if it takes the proper steps to operate in the shifting global economy.

Zoellick's lecture takes place at 1:30 p.m. EDT in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall on campus and highlights a day of events hosted by Purdue's Department of Agricultural Economics. Admission is free and the public is invited.

Zoellick's address, "The Changing Global Economy of the 21st Century: Prospects and Challenges," will question what he considers outdated U.S. farm policy.

"U.S. farm policies have grown increasingly defensive," Zoellick said. "They are rooted in logic from a different era and do not recognize the growing importance of the global food trade. We should reduce barriers to agricultural trade, not hold onto protections of the past that are ill-suited to today."

Zoellick said the new agricultural era "should be defined by the reliance on the scientific method and evidence, innovation, customization and adaptation to growing and developing markets, the use of IT and software, and work across related sectors - such as nutrition, the environment and conservation, good governance, education and training, and public health."

The Zoellick lecture will be preceded by a 10 a.m. panel discussion in Fowler on "The Future of Global Agriculture." Panelists are Zoellick; Thomas Hertel, Purdue agricultural economist and founder and executive director of the Purdue-based Global Trade Analysis Project; John Hardin, Indiana pork producer and member of the Purdue Board of Trustees; and Allan Gray, director of Purdue's Center for Food and Agricultural Business. Wally Tyner, Purdue agricultural economist, will serve as moderator.

At 3:30 p.m. in the Krannert Building auditorium, the Department of Agricultural Economics will present its Apex Awards. The annual awards honor individuals with a strong connection to the department who have made significant contributions to agriculture, business or economics.

The James C. Snyder Memorial Lecture, now in its 39th year, is named for the late Purdue agricultural economics professor.

For more information about the lecture and its related activities, visit the event's website at http://www.agecon.purdue.edu/news/snyder/

Writer: Steve Leer, 765-494-8415, sleer@purdue.edu

Source: Wally Tyner, 765-494-0199, wtyner@purdue.edu

Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Keith Robinson, robins89@purdue.edu
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