Our K-State graduate students have again gone head to head with the best, and come out on top! Congratulations to the Department of Agricultural Economics Case Study Team of Jaeljattin Jaen, Cooper Morris, Jessica Jo Johnson, David Boussios, and Brady Brewer for their first place finish at the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association’s annual meeting this week in Frankfurt, Germany. Three of the 12 competing teams made it to Tuesday’s final round. The winners were: #1. Kansas State University (Ag Econ); #2. Santa Clara University; #3. A Dutch University Team. The final round judges were leading agribusiness leaders, including the President of Novus, the Vice-President of Cargill-Europe, and a professor from the ESSEC Business School in Paris.

This first place finish, combined with last summer’s 1-2 finish at the annual meetings of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association in Denver, clearly mark our students and our faculty as leaders in graduate agribusiness education. The addition this summer and fall of new faulty bringing additional strengths to the undergraduate and graduate programs in agricultural economics and agribusiness, not to mention the ongoing success of the Department’s Master of Agribusiness program, position us extremely well for growing our global recognition for the quality of the Department and of Kansas State University.

We are extremely grateful to the financial help of CHS, Koch Industries, and Cargill and for the many donors to the K-State Ag Econ Foundation accounts for enabling our students to participate in (AND DOMINATE – sorry for the enthusiasm…) these international applied economics and agribusiness meetings. The value of attending these meetings shines in the email I received this morning from Jael. She was ecstatic about the many opportunities she and the other team members have had in meeting and talking with folks such as the CEO of Syngenta, OECD economics division chiefs, several people from the FAO, representatives of the Brazilian government, and the Cargill executive team. Apparently most members of the Case Study Team had the opportunity to interview leaders in the public and private sectors about future international career opportunities.

Stay tuned – Our graduate students have also entered a three-person team to compete at the July Case Study Competition at the AAEA meetings in Pittsburgh, PA.