The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) has named Dr. Joseph W. Glauber, research fellow emeritus at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and former chief economist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as the recipient of the 2026 CAST Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award recognizes individuals whose sustained, career-long contributions have advanced agricultural science, science communication, or science-based leadership in food, agriculture and the environment.
Over more than four decades, Dr. Glauber has helped policymakers, farmers and the public understand how agricultural policies and global events move through markets. He spent 30 years at USDA, including as chief economist from 2008 to 2014, served as the chief U.S. agricultural negotiator in the WTO Doha Round, and helped lead the creation of the G20’s Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) in 2011. At IFPRI, he has analyzed the food-security effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and the 2026 disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, and he has been cited in more than 13,000 media mentions since 2021.
“I always keep telling myself that we’re not in the business of being the headline,” Dr. Glauber said. “We really want to be behind the headline, trying to help people understand an issue.”
“For more than four decades, Joe Glauber has shown what it looks like to put credible science at the center of the decisions that shape agriculture,” said Chris Boomsma, CAST CEO. “That is exactly the kind of career the CAST Lifetime Achievement Award was created to recognize.”
“Joe Glauber not only understands agricultural markets better than most of us, but also has an incredible talent for helping to understand them and to explain how policies and external events are affecting them,” said Dr. Johan Swinnen, director general of IFPRI, who nominated him.
The award will be presented Dec. 10, 2026, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. — the anniversary of Dr. Norman Borlaug’s acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.
