Scott Swinton is a professor of agricultural food and resource economics in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. He was recently named one of MSU’s University Distinguished Professors in 2019.
I’m very passionate about agricultural economics because it starts with trying to solve problems that matter to people.
My research is focused on how farmers make decisions and how consumers make decisions about what to purchase. We put those things together with resource economics where we study the sustainability of water, soils and forests.
In the real world, problems are all connected. Farmers don’t just work on environmental management, they don’t just work with animals, they work with all of these things together. So, it’s important that we, as researchers, work together if we’re going to provide policy relevant information.
I’m a real believer in active learning. For students, my goal is that they come away able to think like economists and get them so involved in the work that it becomes their work.
Reused with permission from WKAR.