Menu Close
Professor and Director, Institute for the Advanced Study of Food and Agricultural Policy, University of Guelph

After obtaining his PhD at North Carolina State University in 1996, Alan worked as a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Arizona. In April 2009, Alan and his kids moved to Canada where he joined the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics in his new position as Chair and Professor. In September 2014, Alan concluded his 5-year term and became Director of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Food and Agricultural Policy. The Institute attracts and supports students in the area of food and agricultural economics, hosts conferences, publishes FAREShare (newsletter) and supports FARETalk (podcast). Alan served as 2016-17 President of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society and sits on the editorial boards of the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics and the European Review of Agricultural Economics. Alan has testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. Alan spent 2016 fall term visiting Sapienza University (Rome) and 2017 winter term visiting University of Queensland (Brisbane). Alan has organized both national and provincial conferences on issues of current policy relevance to the Canadian agricultural and food sectors. His interests are varied having published in leading academic journals ranging from agricultural economics, economics, statistics, probability, law, animal science, and plant science. Current research involves the link between climate change, innovation, and yield volatilities, issues related to risk management and crop insurance, and developing methodologies that borrow information from like dgps to increase small sample efficiency of nonparametric estimators. Alan has also written for the popular press publishing on issues related to agri-food policy in the "National Post", "The Hill Times", and "Conversation Canada" as well as others.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor and Director, Institute for the Advanced Study of Food and Agricultural Policy, University of Guelph