Advancing Economics, Transforming Lives

July 2009

John (Jake) Ferris recognized by MSU Faculty Emeriti Association for Outstanding Contributions by an Individual

The MSU Faculty Emeriti Association recently named retired faculty member John “Jake” Ferris as its selection for the 2008-09 Award for Outstanding Contributions by an Individual.  It is easy to see why. 

Since retiring from Michigan State University on July 1, 1997, Dr. John N. (Jake) Ferris has continued to conduct active research and outreach programs focused on biofuels and other agricultural and natural resource issues.  For analytical purposes, he continues to maintain an econometric model of U.S. agriculture which generates year by year projections for a 10 year outlook.  Since 2005, he has consulted on biodiesel with Jacobsen Publishing, a Chicago based private market news firm specializing in by-products of agribusiness.

His productivity in retirement can be assessed by his publications. From 1998 to 2004, he wrote articles on Michigan farm income and sugarbeets for the AFRE Department’s annual outlook issues of the Michigan Farm News of the Michigan Farm Bureau.  Always responsive to requests for assistance, he prepared two papers on the soybean industry for the Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee, one for the sugarbeet industry, and one on bovine tuberculosis (with Larry Leefers and Dennis Propst in Forestry) for state government, all on the economic impacts to the Michigan economy. 

At the request of State Senator, George McManus, Jake prepared two Ag Econ Staff Papers on the importance of agriculture and the food sector on the Michigan economy (No.2000-11), and trends (No.2000-34).  These papers provided a model for a subsequent publication by MSU’s Product Center (2006).  He wrote a chapter on “Economic Implications of Projected Land Use Patterns in Michigan” in Michigan Land Resource Project, Public Sector Consultants, Inc. (2001) which was the base for a chapter in Michigan at the Millennium with Arlen Leholm and Ray Vlasin; Ballard, C.L., et al,  MSU Press, (2003).

Other papers reflect Ferris’s variety of professional interests.  This includes Ag Econ Staff Papers on marketing wheat (No. 1998-8) and on “Modeling the U.S. Domestic Livestock Feed Sector in a Period of Rapidly Expanding By-Product Feed Supplies from Ethanol Production” (No. 2006-34).  A paper on “An Analysis of the impact of ENSO (El Nino/Southern Oscillation) on Global Crop Yields” was selected for presentation at the 1999 annual meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association.  Another refereed paper on “Forecasting World Crop Yields as Probability Distributions” was presented at the 2006 meeting of the International Association of Agricultural Economists at the Gold Coast of Australia.

Since 2004, Ferris has collaborated extensively with Satish Joshi, Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, and his graduate student, Subu Kumarappan, on analyzing the economics and long run outlook for biofuels.  Three of their juried papers were selected for publication as chapters in Agriculture as a Producer and Consumer of Energy, CABI Publishing, 2005; Biofuels, Food & Feed Tradeoffs, The Farm Foundation, 2007; and Handbook of Bioenergy Economics and Policy, Springer Business & Economics Group, in process.  In addition, Jake’s abstract on “The Economics of Converting Switchgrass and Corn Stover to Ethanol” was accepted for the “Biomass ’09 Conference and Expo” in April 2009 in Portland, OR.

Prompted by a strong positive review of his graduate textbook in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics in May 2004, Jake prepared a second edition of Agricultural Prices and Commodity Market Analysis, MSU Press, 2005.  By the end of 2008, nearly two-thirds of this edition had been sold.

Ferris has been active in both of his professional associations (Agricultural & Applied Economics Association and International Association of Agricultural Economists).  He has participated regularly in an annual survey of members of the AAEA about the coming year’s agricultural outlook, a program he helped to initiate 30 years ago.  Since retiring, he has received the Extension Section’s “Premier Forecaster Awards” for general business and overall forecasting (1999), crops ( 2000 and 2008), and dairy (2008).  He occupies the position of Secretary/Editor of the Senior Section of the AAEA (2007-2009).

Ferris’s outreach activities have contributed beyond his professional activities.  He has been on the Board of Trustees of the Montessori Radmore School since 1968 when he and his wife were among the founding members.  As a continuing member of the choir of Peoples Church, he recently completed a term as elder and served as co-chair of the church’s centennial celebration.  Reflecting his love of classical music, Jake has been a member of the MSU Choral Union since 1997.  His interest in biofuels prompted him to join a group of farmers and others in 2005 to build a biodiesel plant in Bangor, MI.

Beginning in 1998, he and his wife funded the “John (Jake) and Maxine Ferris Global Agribusiness Award” for domestic students in agricultural economics and communications.  About 50 students have benefited from these study-abroad grants which normally range between $500 and $2000.