Lester H. Myers Professor Emeritus Agricultural Policy and Trade Ph.D. 1968, Purdue University E-mail: myersl@vt.edu

Les Myers joined the faculty in 1992 as department head. His research contributions focus on consumer demand for food, food policy analysis, effects of commodity promotion on consumer demand, and commodity subsector modeling.

Before coming to Virginia Tech, Professor Myers held positions at the University of Florida, Chase Econometrics, and the USDA's Economic Research Service. His program responsibilities at USDA included economic studies on food safety, food assistance policy, food marketing costs and margins, food consumption data, human nutrition monitoring, and nutrition education program evaluation.

Professor Myers has taught courses on consumer demand, food marketing, econometrics and agricultural policy. He has served as a director of the American Agricultural Economics Association (1983-1986) and on the U.S. Government Interagency Committee on Human Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research. He has also co-chaired a USDA Committee on Nutrition Education Program Evaluation and has been on the executive committees of three regional research projects. He helped found and is an active member of the National Food Marketing Consortium. In his spare time he enjoys woodworking and gardening.

Selected Publications:

"Food Consumption Data Needs for Food and Agricultural Policy," Journal of Nutrition Education 124:9S (September 1994): 1853S-1859S;

"Summary of Issues and Comparison of Methodologies" (with Dennis R. Henderson), in Industrial Organization and International Trade: Methodological Foundations for International Food and Agricultural Market Research, NC-194 Research Monograph Number 1, Ohio State University, July 1992: 201-210;

"Economic Incentives for Food Industry Concentration and Integration: Economic Implications," in Understanding the True Cost of Food: Considerations for a Sustainable Food System, Proceedings of Institute for Alternative Agriculture Eighth Annual Scientific Symposium, Institute for Alternative Agriculture, Washington, DC, March 1992: 28-38.