Thomas Reardon, Michigan State University, USA

Thomas Reardon is a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University, Fellow of the AAEA, and Honorary Life Member (equivalent of Fellow) of the IAAE. Tom has been at MSU since 1992; IFPRI Research Fellow 1986-1991; Rockefeller Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow attached to IFPRI and collaborating with ICRISAT-Burkina Faso and the University of Ouagadougou, 1984-1986; and graduate with a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1984, Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University in 1979, and a Masters from the Université de Nice, France, in 1977. Tom’s research focuses on transformation of food value chains, studying the “modern revolution” (the Supermarket Revolution and the e-commerce revolution) and the “Quiet Revolution” (the dynamic proliferation of SMEs in the midstream of value chains); Tom studies the impacts of these transformations on small farms, consumption/nutrition, and rural employment in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Tom spent 21 years in residence or long-term travel in those three regions, collaborating with national research institutions and the CGIAR in extensive field survey work. Tom led the AGRA AASR 2019 on the “hidden middle” of food supply chains in Africa; Tom led the Chicago Council on Global Affairs flagship on urbanization and food systems. Tom is: listed in Who’s Who in Economics; was the first agrifood economist personal invitee to the World Economic Forum in Davos; has 37,501 citations and H index of 90 in Google Scholar; ranks in the top 1.4% of 62,109 economists registered globally with IDEAS/REPEC; and was featured on page 1 of the New York Times.