Farm Foundation, a food and agricultural policy institute, said it is partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) to create the new Farm Foundation Agricultural Scholars Program that will take 10 graduate-level students of agriculture through a year of programming.

The collaboration between ERS and Farm Foundation seeks to inspire and train the next generation of agriculturalists interested policy, commodity market analysis, agricultural finance and other applied fields of economics.

"We are very excited to be working with USDA's ERS on this program," Farm Foundation president Shari Rogge-Fidler said. "This partnership is the next step in what Farm Foundation has been working on for the past several decades: engaging the future generation of agricultural leaders."  

The program will engage the scholars in government and agricultural policy with a series of intensive, hands-on learning experiences focused on gaining a deeper understanding of production agriculture, agribusiness and government. Some of the experiences will include mentorship with an ERS staff member and attending Farm Foundation meetings and forums. The scholars will also spend time in Washington, D.C., and Kansas City, Mo., where they will meet with agribusinesses leaders, policy-makers and farmers.

The following students have been selected as 2020 Farm Foundation Agricultural Scholars: Hunter Biram at Kansas State University; Maggie Creamer, Kaleiah Schiller, Tatiana Sierra and Jessica Wallach at the University of California-Davis; Jamie Davis at the University of Georgia; Charles Grigsby-Calage at the University of Florida; Tori Marshall and Katie Welch at Oklahoma State University, and Heather H. Tenboer at Iowa State University.