USM Political Science Professor Earns Federal Grant for Agriculture Research

Mon, 11/06/2023 - 12:28pm | By: Van Arnold

Dr. Joe Weinberg, Associate Professor, Political Science and Legal Studies at The University of Southern Mississippi, has been awarded a grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) that will help broaden his research on scholarly contributions to agriculture policy.

Weinberg’s award, totaling approximately $50,000, is part of a nearly $22 million investment announced by NIFA last month to fund 41 agricultural economics research projects that include agricultural markets, international trade, farm labor, consumer behavior and nutrition, food retail, agricultural production and processing, and agricultural policy. 

Weinberg serves as Principal Investigator on his project: “Improving Scholarly Contributions to Agriculture Policy: Fourth Annual Joint Agricultural Economics-Political Science Conference.” The purpose of the research conference is to foster greater communication among the disciplines that study matters of agriculture policy –specifically agricultural economics and political science.

“This research is important because food security is always important, but has become much more so in recent years with many of us making policy recommendations to U.S. policymakers, our trade partners, and developing countries,” said Weinberg.

He added: “I started this work when I noticed that an ag economist, Mark Bellemare, had written a very similar article to one I had written, but our two disciplines otherwise didn’t communicate. We are now good friends, and he helps me with the conference. Economists can benefit from our political knowledge, and we benefit from their economic knowledge. This is the essence of our interdisciplinary work, and it has been very fruitful.”

This grant marks the third such NIFA award Weinberg has received in conjunction with his research project. The first was awarded in 2017 for $39,700 and the second in 2018 for $49,700. Conferences were held in New Orleans in 2017, 2020 and 2021. The fourth is scheduled for January 12-14, 2024.

The investment is part of NIFA’s grants portfolio within the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s (AFRI) Foundational and Applied Science Program. AFRI builds fundamental and applied knowledge in food and agricultural sciences critical for solving current and future societal challenges. AFRI is the nation’s leading and largest competitive grants program for agricultural sciences.