Faces of Farming: Seth Meyer

After five years in Washington, D.C., serving as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Seth Meyer is back at the University of Missouri—this time as director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI).

With deep roots at Mizzou and a front-row seat to some of the most turbulent years in agricultural policy, Meyer brings a unique perspective to the role. He is succeeding longtime FAPRI director Pat Westhoff, who plans to retire in March.

“I’m excited to be back here, but I’m also a bit nervous,” Meyer said. “Pat is a hard act to follow. I joke that my first goal is simply not to burn the place down in his absence. But in all seriousness, it’s truly an honor.” 

The Iowa native earned his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from MU, where he served as a research professor and FAPRI’s associate director before his most recent appointment at USDA. Previously, he also led the USDA’s World Agricultural Outlook Board and was an economist with the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization.

Today’s Farmer caught Meyer in early January during his first full week on the job at FAPRI to talk about his path back to Missouri, why the institute’s work matters to producers, and how he and his team plan to build on FAPRI’s legacy as a trusted, unbiased source of agricultural policy analysis.

What does it mean to come back to your roots as FAPRI director? 

I have a long history at Mizzou—about 17 years on the books at the university between working here full time, earning my Ph.D., and being associate director at FAPRI. Even when I was in D.C., my wife, Phousavanh, and our dog, Mochi, stayed in Columbia. So, it’s great to be home. It’s great to be back with family. And it’s great to work with people I know and respect.

How does your USDA experience shape what you bring to FAPRI? 

At USDA, I was a career employee, often charged with explaining complex issues and market dynamics to policymakers who had limited time and needed clear answers. Here at FAPRI, we get to do both sides of that work. We do the scientific analysis, but we also translate it—explaining what it means for policymakers, and just as importantly, what it means for producers. People in D.C. want to be able to ask questions and not be guarded about how they’re asking them. I want to maintain FAPRI’s reputation as being that trusted source and build on its outreach to both policymakers and producers.

For farmers reading this, why is FAPRI’s work important to them?

Demand for analytics is only increasing, so the need for the in-depth work FAPRI provides is getting stronger. At its core, FAPRI exists to not only provide unbiased, credible data but also ground that information in reality. For policymakers, that means helping them understand how proposed legislation, existing programs and market drivers affect their constituents. From a producer’s standpoint, that means understanding how these things might affect your operation or fit into your risk-management decisions. We aren’t just doing great math, putting it in a journal and walking away. The value in the work FAPRI does is explaining why the analytics matter to farmers and the people making decisions that affect them.

FAPRI’s outlooks haven’t been especially rosy for row-crop producers lately. How do you approach those conversations?

Those are harder conversations, but they may be the most important ones. When margins are tight, producers can afford fewer mistakes. It would be unrealistic to say we’re at the bottom and everything is about to skyrocket. Agriculture is cyclical—we’ve seen price spikes and downturns before. What matters is helping producers think through cost structures, marketing patterns and crop insurance decisions. Being upfront and honest about the outlook builds credibility, even when the message isn’t what people want to hear.

What’s one takeaway you want readers to know about FAPRI? 

This isn’t some abstract academic exercise that sits on a shelf. What we do is meant to inform real decisions that affect real operations. You may not see everything we do, because a lot of it happens out of the public eye, but it all matters. And it works best when there’s strong engagement both ways. I’m excited to get out and connect with producers here in Missouri and hear their concerns. When producers engage with us, they’re helping shape better analysis to inform the policymakers, bridging that gap and helping critical information flow back and forth. 

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