COLLEGE STATION — Dr. Ed Smith of College Station received the Distinguished Service award from the Texas Agricultural Cooperative Council.
Smith, the Distinguished Roy B. Davis Professor of Agricultural Cooperation at Texas A&M University, accepted the award at the TACC’s annual meeting in Corpus Christi.
Dr. Gene Nelson, head, Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M, said, “This award — normally reserved for only cooperative managers and directors — saluted Ed’s tremendous contributions to cooperative organizations of Texas and their membership.”
In his present assignment, which he accepted in 1988, Smith develops educational programs to assist agricultural cooperative and other agribusiness clientele in operational and strategic planning and to analyze the impact of farm policy on American agriculture. He also teaches a senior-level agricultural economics class on agricultural cooperatives at Texas A&M.
Tom Engelke, TACC executive vice president, said Smith was very deserving of the award. He said Smith also goes the extra mile to be a speaker at seminars throughout the state and to help boards of directors facilitate long-range plans for their cooperatives, he said.
“Ed touches many farmers’ and ranchers’ lives through his work,” he said, adding that many of the cooperatives in the state have from 150 to 700 members.
“Although few people know it, it is quite common for him to stay up until 2 or 3 every morning working on projects and papers, all in an effort to make agriculture a more pleasant place for all of us to enjoy,” Engelke said.
Bill Nelson, executive vice president of the Texas Wheat Producers, said the public policy issue papers developed by Smith that provide producers and leaders with information for decision- making are “legendary.”
Smith received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in agricultural economics from Texas A&M.
He initially went to work for the Texas Agricultural Extension Service as an assistant county agent in Gaines County in 1975. In 1977, he received a full appointment as county agent in that same county and later that year, began serving as county agent in Terry County.
In 1980, Smith accepted an appointment as an Extension associate. He was responsible for studying the impact of farm programs on the farm structure in the Texas High Plains. From 1982 until 1987, he was the Extension economist for grain marketing and policy where he worked with producers and agribusiness in analyzing the grain situation and outlook. Additionally, he developed educational programs designed to assist clientele in the development of marketing plans.
“We applaud TACC’s decision to honor the dedication and vision of Ed Smith with this well-deserved recognition,” Nelson added.
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