Willard Cochrane

Willard W. Cochrane
Born(1914-05-15)May 15, 1914
Fresno, California
DiedMarch 5, 2012(2012-03-05) (aged 97)
Oak Park Heights, Minnesota
NationalityAmerican
Academic career
FieldAgricultural economics
Alma materHarvard University
Doctoral
advisor		John D. Black

Willard Wesley Cochrane (May 15, 1914 – March 5, 2012)[1] was an agricultural economist and a leading architect of farm policy in the United States.

He was born in 1914 in California and went on to earn degrees at the University of California, Berkeley, Montana State University and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D.

In the late 1930s and 1940s, he served in government and United Nations agricultural agencies. He served in the Navy during World War II.[2] He became Professor of agricultural economics at the University of Minnesota in 1951.

During the 1960s he was U.S. Department of Agriculture's head agricultural economist under U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman. During this time he developed proposals for supply management policy and a national food stamp program.

He was an advocate of sustainable family farming and coined the concept of the technology treadmill. He was opposed to government commodity program payments and an early advocate of set aside programs to benefit conservation. [3][4]

  1. ^ "Willard Cochrane Obituary". Bradshaw Funeral Home. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  2. ^ Webb, Tom (March 6, 2012). "Willard Cochrane, JFK adviser and U of M agricultural economist, dies". St. Paul Pioneer Press. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  3. ^ "Remembering Dr. Willard Cochrane". Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. March 13, 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  4. ^ SHAFFER, DAVID (March 7, 2012). "Obituary: Willard Cochrane left mark on farm policy and fight vs. hunger". Star Tribune. Retrieved 21 February 2014.