The Eighteenth J. W. Fanning Lecture was held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education in Athens on December 11, 2002. Presenting the Fanning Lecture was Eric Joiner, President, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of AJC International. His topic was "Dynamics of the Global Poultry Market." He made an excellent presentation on the future of international trade in poultry. There was a spirited discussion with numerous questions following his presentation.
A luncheon and awards ceremony followed the lecture. Receiving special awards were Carol Spruill and Swagata Banerjee who have been listed in the Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. Carol and Swagata are outstanding Agricultural and Applied Economics students who are well deserving of special recognition.
The CAES Alumni Association 2002 Award of Excellence was presented to Gaylord Coan (1959 BSA in agricultural economics). Gaylord recently retired as CEO and Chairman of the Management Executive Committee of Gold Kist, Inc. This award was to have been presented to him at the annual Alumni Association Banquet held last September. Unfortunately, he was engaged in international travel during that time so this occasion was used to make the presentation. He has been extremely active in the agribusiness arena for his total career. In addition to numerous business activities, he has also provided voluntary leadership to industry, trade, educational, civic and social organizations.
Upon receiving the award, Mr. Coan reflected on how it all began on one cold
December day in 1957 when he and his wife, Sandra, came to Athens. "I talked
to J.W. Fanning about getting into the College of Agriculture and I had no idea
where it would lead. I am very appreciative to UGA for what it has meant in
our lives," Coan said.
Carol Spruill is one of three undergraduates in our College who were elected to Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. Carol is an Agricultural Economics major from Hoschton, Georgia. She has maintained a 4.0 grade-point average while juggling numerous extracurricular activities at the University. She currently serves as president for the Sigma Alpha sorority and completed her office as president for the Agricultural and Environmental Economics Club in Spring 2002. She represented South Campus as a finalist on the University's 2001 Homecoming Court. As National FFA Vice President, Carol traveled to 38 states and several foreign countries to speak at conferences and train leaders.
Swagata "Ban" Banerjee, a PHD student in agricultural economics, was elected to Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. He earned a Masters in Resource and Applied Economics from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1999. He holds a Bachelors and Masters in Economics from the University of Calcutta.
Ban is a member of the Tau Chapter of Phi Beta Delta Honor Society and in April, 2002 won the Society's Saeeda Peermohamed Award for outstanding scholarship, leadership and service in the field of international education. He is also a mentor for the Global Friends Program. In 1997, he won the Outstanding Graduate Student Award given by the Board of Regents at the University of Nevada, Reno. When not involved in academics, Ban works on his music. He is a singer, songwriter, and composer of fokk-rock/pop music and has performed on UGA's WUOG radio station.
Luanne Lohr is responsible for selecting the papers to be presented at the 2003 meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA) in Montreal. Dr. Lohr, who is an Associate Professor in this department, is chair of the AAEA Selected Papers Committee. She will identify topic leaders, and with the topic leaders, find reviewers for all abstracts submitted. Dr. Lohr's leadership and the decisions of this committee will be important factors in determining the success of the 2003 AAEA meeting.
Anne C. Haddix (1993 PHD in agricultural economics), Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) of Emory University and Steven M. Teutsch, Merck & Co., Inc. are editors of Prevention Effectiveness: a Guide to Decision Analysis and Economic Evaluation, Second Edition. Mark L. Messonnier (1995 PHD in agricultural economics) is a contributing author.
Dr. Haddix is Associate Professor in the Department of International Health. She is working on a multi-year investigation of the economic burden of lymphatic filariasis and other diseases targeted for elimination or eradication. She founded the Emory Lymphatic Filariasis Support Center, part of the Global Alliance for the Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis. Prior to joining Emory University, Dr. Haddix was the senior economist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she helped to create a post-doctoral fellowship program in health and applied economics. Two UGA alums have participated in the fellowship program.
Gold Kist Inc. recently announced that Crawford resident Frederick W. Gretsch Jr. (1987 BSA in agricultural economics) has been elected to a three-year term on the Gold Kist Board, which comprises nine farmer members. He produces 245,000 broilers per flock for Gold Kist in addition to finishing 17,000 market hogs and raising 35,000 nursery pigs each year. Gretsch is also a distributor of P.L.T., Poultry Litter Treatment, which helps decrease the ammonia levels in broiler houses.
After graduating from the University of Georgia, Gretsch worked for Gold Kist for more than 10 years as a sales representative, quality assurance manager and plant manager. He was a plant manager for another processor for three years. He is a member of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association.
William D. Givan, Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics retired November 30, 2002 with 27 years of service at the University of Georgia. He received the Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. Prior to joining the faculty at UGA he served 7 years with USDA, Economic Research Service.
His program areas in extension and research have been farm management, financial planning and policy. He has provided leadership for general policy analysis, tobacco economic analysis, commodity budgets and departmental newsletters.
These programs consisted of counseling many farm operators and serving extensively in Extension's financial planning program with farmers during the farm crisis of the 1980's. His activities have involved educational programs in 156 of Georgia's 159 counties.
He has held positions of responsibility in both the Georgia and National Association of County Agricultural Agents and received the Achievement Award and Distinguished Service Award of the National Association. The Tobacco Growers Association of Georgia selected him as the recipient of their first Georgia Extension Education Award in 1998.
A major non-department (annual leave) effort of his has been working on numerous ACDI/VOCA volunteer projects in the Eastern European countries. These consisted primarily of financial planning on former state-owned farms that have been privitized.
John R. Allison, Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics will be retiring December 31, 2002 with 41 years of service to the University of Georgia. He received the Ph.D. from California, Berkeley. John's research has focused on production economics. He is best known for quantitative analysis related to decision making. His recent work is on commodity budgets and waste management.
