Incorporated in 1970 by a group of visionaries, the Food Distribution Research Society mission is to serve as the bridge between academia, industry, and government. Today, our work is more important now than perhaps it has ever been. Derived from the mid-16th century Latin socius, meaning companion, our founders chose the term “society” to indicate our desire to offer a space for the “friendly association with others” within the agricultural and applied economics discipline. Motivated by our passion for this profession, we focus beyond pursuits of metrics. Rather, we place deliberate emphases on our ability to light a spark in a student’s mind, support of colleagues simply because we care about one another, and seek to share objective science with stakeholders who need help.
While the world watches migrant caravans and U.S. trade policies place limits on market access for agribusinesses, we are hosting our 2019 Annual Conference in Seattle, a port city coined as the Gateway to the Orient. The state of Washington is populated by immigrant-owned high-value specialty crop operations and the historical educational foci of transportation economics principles and practices.
Adopting Peter Drucker’s notion of the “change agent” our friendly association of companions is creating change visually (see our new FDRS logo) and, socially (see our 2018 Facebook live stream archives of award winner presentations). We actively foster global-local partnerships in our leadership, evidenced by our incoming editorial team with experience in international trade research and applied, grassroots-driven, direct marketing education. We are creating two new positions on our Executive Board to expand our leadership connections and capture the voices of industry and government.
In 2020, FDRS will celebrate its 50th birthday (as will I), and as our 50th President, I invite past, current, and future members to join me in my journey as I unveil our Society’s secrets. Each month, I will share an impact of each of ten FDRS Past-Presidents on my career to provide evidence of the priceless value of membership in our Society. Each month, our commitment to mentorship, relentless pursuit of knowledge, support of talented students and professionals, and willingness to volunteer time and resources motivated by our altruistic spirits produces a societal culture with the capacity to achieve metrics and so much more.
I invite you to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, become a member of FDRS, join our email list, come to our 2019 conference, and submit an article to our Journal of Food Distribution Research.
