Gary Williams

Professional Summary

Gary Williams, Ph.D. is a professor emeritus in the Department of Agricultural Economics and currently serves as co-director and chief operations officer for the Agribusiness, Food and Consumer Economics Research Center (AFCERC). As co-director, Williams leads research and outreach projects relating to commodity and agribusiness markets and policy and international trade and policy. His areas of teaching and research emphases include commodity promotion programs, international agricultural trade and development, agricultural policy, and marketing and price analysis.

Prior to joining the faculty at Texas A&M University, he gained experience as a professor and assistant coordinator for the Meat Export Research Center at Iowa State University, senior economist at Chase Econometrics, agricultural economist for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and special assistant to the U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture for International Affairs and Commodity Programs at USDA.

Williams has lived and worked in Latin America throughout his career, focusing particularly on North American Free Trade Agreement and other agricultural trade, policy, and development issues. In recent years, he has become particularly well known for his research on the economic effectiveness of commodity checkoff programs, including those for soybeans, cotton, lamb, Florida orange juice, propane, Texas citrus, Texas pecans, and others. He is also well known for his research on domestic and world oilseed and oilseed product markets and the U.S. livestock and packing industries. He recently served as chair of a National Academy of Science Committee on the status and economic performance of the U.S. Sheep and Lamb Industry.