It
may seem early to reflect on this but necessary for the reasons identified
by the President. It parallels current reflections by other associations
related to natural resource economics like the American Agricultural Economics
Association. Some of their concerns mirror ours and their conclusions worthy
of consideration. The information in the succeeding paragraphs is taken
from the May 1997 News-Sheet of the UK Agricultural Economics Society.
AAEA
REVIEWS ITS MISSION
The final version of the Kellogg Report, "Visions for Agricultural
Economics: Better Serving Applied Economists" has recently been published.
This year-long study had the goal of recommending products and services
needed by agricultural economists to better serve society in the 21st century.
Common
threads emerging were:
- the great diversity of agricultural
economists when viewed either by topic or function - the American Agricultural
Economics Association did not reflect this rich diversity in its membership,
products, services or governance;
- there was insufficient activism
- the Association had not been sufficiently proactive in retaining current
members or attracting new members and had seldom been the leader in identifying
emerging issues, providing unbiased information, etc. to decision makers;
- the need for life-long learning
by agricultural economists, for example in new research and teaching methods
- avenues were needed whereby agricultural economists could meet this
need;
- the profession lacks a sense
of community - the academic, disciplinary emphasis of the Association
had tended to alienate agricultural economists working in government and
industry and those primarily teaching in colleges or providing extension
services.
The
full text of the report is available on the AAEA Homepage http://www.aaea.org
