About the Authors
Anthony S.Earl, Chair, has been a partner at the Quarles and Brady Law Firm in Madison, Wisconsin, since 1987. He served as the 40th governor of the State of Wisconsin (1983–1986). Earl has extensive expertise in environmental law and policy, and he is involved in many civic activities. An advocate of environmental civic responsibility, as governor, Earl successfully advanced through the legislature a significant number of initiatives in the areas of education, equal opportunity, economic development, and protection of the environment. Earl served on the NRC Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources from 1996 to 1999. He chaired the NRC Committee on the Future of Colleges of Agriculture in the Land Grant University System. Earl received his B.A. from Michigan State University and a J.D. from the University of Chicago (1961).
Michael Boehlje is professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He has extensive expertise in farm and agribusiness management and finance. Boehlje is a former head of the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. He also served as assistant dean for the College of Agriculture, Iowa State University and as assistant director of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station. Boehlje conducts research and teaches in the area of farm and agribusiness management and finance. His research interests include alternative
systems of coordination in the food and industrial product chain, industrialization of agriculture, and alternative financial and organizational structures for farm and agribusiness firms. Boehlje’s work focuses on strategic planning, visioning finance, and business policy. He received an M.S. in 1968 and Ph.D. in 1971, both in agricultural economics, from Purdue University.
R.Dean Boyd is director of nutrition at Pig Improvement Company (PIC) USA in Franklin, Kentucky. He has expertise in the dynamics of animal nutrition and experience with industrial and academic research management. Boyd manages nutrition-genotype research and provides nutrient recommendations and technical service to customers. He also manages the nutrition program for PIC farms and joint-venture partners, and is a member of the technical strategy team for PIC Group (UK). Before joining PIC, Boyd was professor of animal science at Cornell University. His research group made important contributions to explaining of the regulation of nutrient use for lean growth, methods to improve the efficiency of amino acid use, and biologic potential for growth. Boyd was a member of the NRC Subcommittee on Role of Metabolic Modifiers on Animal Nutrient Requirements. He received his Ph.D. in animal nutrition from the University of Nebraska in 1979.
Frederick H.Buttel is professor and chair of the Department of Rural Sociology and professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin. Buttel also is associate director of the university’s Program on Agricultural Technology Studies. He has expertise in rural and environmental sociology, and in the sociology of agrarian systems. Buttel’s research interests include environmental sociology and policy, technology and social change, political sociology, sociology of development, theory of sociology, and sociology of science. He served as a member of the NRC committee that produced Managing Global Genetic Resources (1993). Buttel holds master’s degrees in rural sociology, from University of Wisconsin, Madison (1972), and in forestry and environmental studies, from Yale University (1973). He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1975.
Cornelia B.Flora is director of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development and professor of sociology at Iowa State University. She has extensive background in rural sociology, agriculture, and in rural development. Her research interests include rural America and global restructuring, science and sustainability, and rural economic development through self-development strategies. Before Flora’s appointment at Iowa State University, she was professor and head of the Department of Sociology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, university distinguished professor at Kansas State University, and program advisor for agricultural development at the Ford Foundation. Flora serves on the NRC Board on Agriculture and Natural
Resources. She received her M.S. in rural sociology in 1966, and a Ph.D. in development sociology in 1970, both from Cornell University.
Peter J.Goldmark is the owner and operator of a 7,000-acre farm (Double J. Ranch, Inc.) that is evenly split between farmland and pasture land. He also is the founder and chief scientist of a biotechnology research laboratory, DJR Research, Inc., in Okanogan, Washington. Goldmark has expertise and hands-on experience in farming and ranching, and experience with regulatory and policy issues. In 1993, he was the director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, and he currently serves on the Washington State University Board of Regents. He also served as chair of the Governor’s Council on Agriculture and the Environment, and he has held many positions within the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. Goldmark received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1971.
Frederick Kirschenmann is director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Ames, Iowa, and founder and president of Farm Verified Organic, Inc., in Medina, North Dakota, a private certification agency for organic farmers. He also is the manager of Kirschenmann Family Farms, a 3,500-acre grain and livestock operation, which he converted into an organic farm. Kirschenmann’s expertise includes issues related to sustainable agriculture and farm operations. He is former dean and professor at Curry College in Boston, Massachusetts. Kirschenmann has been active in numerous sustainable and organic agriculture organizations. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on sustainable agriculture and related topics. Kirschenmann earned a Ph.D. in historical theology from the University of Chicago in 1964.
David Zilberman is professor and chair in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and director of the Center for Sustainable Resource Development at the University of California, Berkeley. His expertise includes natural resource economics, agricultural research policy, and adoption of technologies at the farm level. He served on the NRC Committee on the Future Role of Pesticides in U.S. Agriculture. Zilberman received his B.A. in economics/statistics in 1971 from Tel Aviv University, Israel, and his Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics in 1979 from the University of California, Berkeley.
