Arkansas ag economist John Anderson elected president of Southern Agriculture Economics Association

Starting next year, John Anderson will be in a position to provide strategic guidance to the Southern Agriculture Economics Association, an organization he says has helped shape him professionally for more than two decades. He has been elected the organization’s next president and his term will start in 2024,

Anderson, a Timbo native, is head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences.

“It is an honor for me to have this opportunity to give back to an organization that has done so much for me,” Anderson said. “I am looking forward to working closely with them and the rest of the SAEA Executive Council over the coming year.”

Anderson has been a member of the SAEA since he was a graduate student in the late 1990’s. His participation and involvement in the organization have helped shaped his professional outlook and provided him with countless opportunities.

“I have made lifelong friendships among my SAEA colleagues,” said Anderson. “I have known the current president, Marco Palma at Texas A&M, and past president, Rodney Holcomb at Oklahoma State, for many years and have the utmost respect for them both.”

The SAEA is a non-profit association comprised of economists striving to understand and explain the values and impacts of factors related to agricultural production, agribusiness, rural development, and natural resources management in the Southern United States.

“John is a very respected leader throughout the land-grant system,” said Deacue Fields, head of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and a past president of SAEA. “He will do a great job implementing programs for the SAEA. This is a great recognition of John’s leadership that will provide tremendous visibility for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.”

Rodney Holcomb, professor of agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University, encouraged Anderson to stand for election.

“I’m a big fan of John Anderson. He’s an outstanding agricultural economist who is greatly respected by peers in both academia and industry,” said Holcomb. “He’s also a strategic thinker with excellent people skills, which is why he’s a good department head. That combination of talents is exactly what the SAEA needs, and that’s why I encouraged him to run for the office.”

Anderson was elected by a vote of the membership that includes 400 members of SAEA. The organization has a three-year rotation for the president’s office where the candidate-elect will serve as president-elect for one year, president for the second year, and past president for the third year.

For that three-year period, Anderson will sit on the SAEA Executive Council to help provide strategic leadership to the organization and assist in managing the association’s functions, the primary functions being the organization and execution of the annual meeting and management of the SAEA’s peer-reviewed journal, the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics.

For more than 20 years, Anderson has worked as a professional agricultural economist in both academic and industry positions.