Production economics, farm management, agribusiness management, federal farm policy

Kent D. Olson is involved in applied research, on-campus teaching, and extension education. His current classroom teaching is on farm management and world food problems. He has taught agribusiness management in the past. He wrote a textbook, Farm Management: Principles and Strategies, in 2004.

His research emphasizes farm level management issues, especially the interaction between farming and the environment; decision making; and the impact of government policies. Besides whole-farm analysis, his research has concentrated on crops (mainly maize, soybean, wheat, rice, cotton, alfalfa, and rangeland). He has worked in Sweden, Poland, Uganda, and Italy.

He has published in the Economic Development and Cultural Change, Review of Agricultural Economics, International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, Agricultural Economics, Journal of the American Water Resources Association, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, Journal of Production Agriculture, Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Western Journal of Agricultural Economics and Computers and Electronics in Agriculture.

Professor Olson majored in farm operation and agricultural economics at Iowa State University, and received his Ph.D. in economics from Iowa State University. He worked as Extension Economist at the University of California-Davis in the Department of Agricultural Economics before coming to Minnesota. Dr. Olson joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 1985.