Seth Meyer will be returning to the Department of Agriculture to assume the position of chief economist.
Meyer takes the place of Rob Johansson, who has held the position since 2015 and plans to depart USDA at the end of January and accept a position as the associate director of economics and policy analysis at the American Sugar Alliance.
“This is a challenging time for the food and agricultural sector. I’m quite honored to be asked to rejoin USDA as Chief Economist,” Myer said in a USDA statement. “I look forward to serving the American public and USDA’s many stakeholders and constituencies.”
Meyer comes to USDA after a stop at the University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, where he served as an associate director and research professor. It was his second stop at FAPRI, where he also worked for 12 years prior to intervening stays at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and USDA’s World Agricultural Outlook Board.
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At WAOB, Myer was responsible for the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report as well as the work of the Joint Agricultural Weather Facility. As Chief Economist, Meyer will oversee the Chief Economist, the World Agricultural Outlook Board, the Office of Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit analysis, the Global Change Program Office, the Office of Environmental Markets, and the Office of Energy Policy and New Uses.
In a statement, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue thanked Johansson for his time at USDA and said he had been an “upstanding public servant.”
“Rob’s leadership and economic support over the past two years with trade disruptions and COVID-19 relief has helped us make evidenced-based decisions when designing programs to assist American farmers and ranchers during their time of need,” Perdue said. “We are excited to bring back Dr. Seth Meyer and know that he will do a tremendous job serving the people of American agriculture.”
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