OAK BROOK, Ill. – Farm Foundation has announced Alejandro Plastina, associate professor and extension economist at Iowa State University’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, has been selected as its first agricultural economics fellow.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Plastina as our first agricultural economics fellow,” said Shari Rogge-Fidler, Farm Foundation president and CEO. “We have a long history with agricultural economists, on our board and in our programming, so this is an exciting extension for us.

“Dr. Plastina’s academic and practical experience brings great value to Farm Foundation’s programs for stakeholders throughout the food and ag value chain to advance their understanding of the economic issues surrounding critical topics such as sustainable agriculture.”

According to the foundation, the agricultural economics fellowship is a new program designed to nurture a promising leader in the field. 

Plastina will be engaged with Farm Foundation for one year, during which he will have the opportunity to provide thought leadership through publications and speaking appearances, expand his professional network and manage high-visibility projects.

In addition, he will participate in Farm Foundation programs and events, network with and be mentored by staff in the USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist, and mentor and meet with participants in Farm Foundation’s suite of next generation development programs.

“The agricultural economics fellowship at Farm Foundation is a fantastic year-long opportunity to work with thought leaders in the agricultural sector to develop practical guidelines to help U.S. farmers, ranchers and policymakers navigate the opportunities and challenges presented to them by the rapidly increasing number of initiatives on agricultural carbon sequestration and GHG mitigation, and in so doing inform my longer-term research efforts on farm business management,” Plastina said.

Raised in Argentina, Plastina’s area of specialization is agricultural production and technology, with an emphasis on-farm business and financial management.

“Although I did not grow up in a farm, I very much enjoyed visiting my grandparents who raised hogs, rabbits (for fur and meat), layers, and sheep (for meat) at a small scale,” he said. “I have always appreciated the hard-working people in the agricultural sector.”

Plastina’s recent publications have addressed the economics of conservation practices such as cover crops and subfield land-use change from corn-soybean rotations into switchgrass, as well as agricultural productivity analyses.

The agricultural economics fellowship is the latest recognition for Plastina, who received the Iowa State Office of the President Excellence in Remote Instruction Award in 2021; the Iowa State Extension and Outreach Creativity in Service to All Iowans Award in 2020; and the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association Distinguished Extension Program Award in 2019.

He also won the Iowa State Agriculture and Natural Resources Programming Innovation Award in 2018; and the Iowa State Extension and Outreach Impacting Iowa Award in 2014.

Plastina received his bachelor of arts in economics, with a major theoretical focus, in 2000, and his master of arts in health economics and management (ABD) in 2001, both at Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina. 

“After graduation, I worked a couple of years helping hospitals and large health care providers evaluate the cost-effectiveness of multiple practices, and I quickly realized that the fancy mathematical models that I learned in college fell short of being directly applicable to real-life problems,” he said.

As a result of multiple domestic and international consultations, he said, “I learned about agricultural economics as an area of specialization focused on finding applied (as opposed to theoretical) solutions to real-life problems faced mostly by farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses and consumers of agricultural outputs and their derivatives.

“I also learned that some agricultural economists have the luxury of working closely with agricultural producers on multiple projects,” he said. “Those were the two main drivers of my decision to pursue a career in the agricultural economics profession.”

After completing a master of science in statistics in 2005, and a doctorate in agricultural economics in 2007, both at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he added, “I had the great honor of serving cotton producers, and 41 governments of cotton-producing and cotton-consuming countries for seven years (while visiting 23 of those countries) as economist and senior economist of the International Cotton Advisory Committee in Washington, D.C.”

Over the past seven years, Plastina said he refocused his career toward serving Iowa and Midwest farmers through his extension faculty position at Iowa State University.

“My current focus is on helping farmers and agricultural stakeholders make informed farm business and financial management decisions,” he said. “I thoroughly enjoy working with them to develop the decision tools, reports and research that inform my extension program.”