Spring 2002
 

Dear Friend,

    You have the opportunity to be a part of a history-making night. For the first time, an event has been planned for the gathering of the many alumni, supporters, students, and faculty involved with agricultural and environmental economics at the University of Georgia. As an important part of this group, you are invited to attend the upcoming CONNER CONNECTS, past, present, and future celebration.

    At this point, you may be saying to yourself, "Why Conner?" Conner Hall will always be at the center of UGA's south campus and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. This building has connected thousands of people to their agricultural careers, and it is the current home for agricultural economics, agribusiness, and environmental economics. For this reason, we found it a fitting title for a banquet honoring the past, present, and future interests in the industry. Our celebration will be held on April 23rd, at 7:00 pm at Flinchum's Phoenix in Athens. 

    Conner Connects is a vision of the undergraduate students and faculty at the University. We would like to continue developing agriculture's support system for future involvement and stability. 

    We hope you will accept our invitation to come and unite with old friends, meet with faculty members, and see the current students who are pursuing their degrees. Along with a catered meal, we will also have entertainment and plenty of time for socializing.

    For our planning purposes, we ask that you  notify the Department at (706) 542-2481 or aaecon@agecon.uga.edu by April 15 if you plan to attend. The cost of the banquet will be fifteen dollars per person. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you in Athens on April 23rd. Thank you once again for your support.

                Sincerely,
                Carol L. Spruill

Dr. Jean Kinsey, president of the American Agricultural Economics Association, will be guest speaker for the 2002 Rod Ziemer Lecture. The Lecture will be at 4:00 p.m. on April 12, 2002. The topic of the lecture is "The Globalization of Food and Agricultural System: The Nexus of Consumer, Environment, and Science." Dr. Kinsey is Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. The Lecture is sponsored by the Graduate Student Association and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Department.

A new web site for the Agricultural Economics Association of Georgia is now available. Check out the informative site, which includes Career Opportunities on the web. The site highlights current information on employment trends and provides links to numerous job search engines related to agricultural and applied economics.  http://www.agecon.uga.edu/~aeag

Dedication of the Nessmith-Lane Continuing Education Building on the Georgia Southern University Campus was held January 2002 in Statesboro.  This building houses George Shumaker and a number of other CAES faculty and staff who serve in the Eastern part of Georgia.

In January 2002 the CAES Faculty Council approved proposals for two new Agricultural and Applied Economics minors: Environmental Economics and Management and Environmental Law. These programs will strengthen the Depart-ment's offerings in the environmental programs and serve to attract students who have an interest in environmental economics and law. These proposals have been sent forward for consideration by the University.

New Editors Appointed: Wojciech Florkowski and Forrest Stegelin have recently been named co-editors of the Journal of Food Distribution Research.

Outstanding University of Georgia Teacher: Steve Turner received the Student Government Association Outstanding Teacher Award in Fall 2001.

Outstanding Paper Awards: Several Agricultural and Applied Economics faculty have been recognized for outstanding papers.
•    Forrest Stegelin was a recipient of the Best Paper Award in agricultural economics from the SE Decision Sciences Institute 2002 on water audits in the green industry.
•    Forrest Stegelin was co-author of an article on English ivy production that received special recognition from the Southern Horticultural Society.
•    Jeff Jordan won the 2001 Best Water Conservation Paper Award from the American Water Works Association.

Georgia Agri-Leaders Forum: Forrest Stegelin will be participating in the 2002 class of the Georgia Agri-Leaders Forum.

ESCOP/ACOP Leadership Program: Luanne Lohr  has been selected to participate in the 2003 class of the ESCOP/ACOP Leadership Program.

Rising Star Award:  Carol Lea Spruill, an Agricultural Economics Major from Jackson County, received the Rising Star Outstanding Junior Award at the South
Campus Awards Banquet in March 2002.  Congratulations, Carol for being selected the College's top junior.

Leadership UGA: Emily Howard, Agribusiness major from Madison, has been selected to participate in Leadership UGA for 2001-2002. She is one of the 40 juniors and seniors selected to participate in UGA's oldest leadership program. Prominent leaders from throughout the state are invited to meet with the students to define the current issues facing the nation and their efforts to respond.

Certificate for International Agriculture: In November 2001 CAES hosted a luncheon for students receiving a Certificate for International Agriculture. Mark Lusk, Associate Provost for International Affairs, gave the keynote address. Several Agricultural and Applied Economics students presented summaries of their experiences in International Agriculture programs. This included special presentations by Leigh Heusner (Agribusiness major), Belgium; Bastiaan Schimmel (Agricultural Economics major), Japan; and Leanne Stalvey (Agribusiness minor), Thailand.

Leadership Awards: The Department's undergraduate club - Agricultural and Environmental Economics Club - was one of four College organizations to win one of the first leadership awards presented by our College. The Agricultural and Environmental Economics Club will use its funds to send students to participate in the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA)competition.

Regents Opportunity Scholarship: Congratulations also to Leanne Stalvey who won a Regents Opportunity Scholarship for Spring 2002.  Leanne completed her Bachelor's Degree in agricultural communications with a minor in agribusiness last May. Leanne is now working on her Master's Degree in agricultural education.

A marketing plan was developed in 2001 for the Agricultural and Applied Economics Department. The marketing plan is aimed at (1) recruiting a larger and more diverse student body and (2) generating more student credit hours. It addresses the relationships among alumni, current students and prospective students. The marketing plan can be viewed on the Department's web page  http://www.agecon.uga.edu/~aaec/marketplan.html .

A new student recruitment tool and e-career service, which is being marketed as CareerwiZe, has been developed for the Agricultural and Applied Economics Department. Prospective and current students can use the information to better understand careers for our majors. CareerwiZe can be reached on the Internet at http://www.CareerwiZe.org.

The 2001 J.W. Fanning Lecture was presented by Dr. Tassos Haniotis,  a member of the Cabinet of Dr. Franz Fischler, EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries with responsibility for the Common Agricultural Policy and the agricultural budget. The 2001 Lecture was entitled "Emerging Agricultural Trade Issues: Challenges for European Union and United States Policy." The Lecture focused on EU and US policy in 2002 and beyond.  The complete Lecture is posted on the Agricultural Economics Association web site: http://www.agecon.uga.edu/~aeag/.  

The new farm bill will have significant implications for Georgia farmers. Several faculty members in the Agricultural and Applied Economics Department are addressing these implications. Don Shurley is heading up the Agricultural and Applied Economics farm bill response team. Our extension faculty - Don Shurley, Nathan Smith, George Shumaker and Bill Givan - have written and talked in numerous forums about the implications.

The Department offers great opportunities for advanced degrees. At the masters degree level, we offer three degree options: M.S. in Agricultural Economics, M.S. in Environmental Economics, and Master of Agricultural Economics (professional, non-thesis option). The department also offers a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics. At the Ph.D. and Masters levels, students can concentrate their studies in a broad range of specialties including marketing, production, consumer demand, international trade, natural resource management, environmental policy, and rural development.  For qualified students, the department offers financial assistance through graduate research assistantships.
 
For more information on our graduate program, see the departmental web page at www.agecon.uga.edu or contact our Graduate Coordinator, Dr. James Epperson at 706-542-0766 or jepperson@agecon.uga.edu.