The U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief economist will be the featured speaker at a symposium marking the centennial of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics.

Joe Glauber, who earned his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the university in 1984, will talk about on trade policy and agriculture. His speech will start at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 24 in the Biotechnology Center on campus at 425 Henry Mall. The talk is free and open to the public.

Glauber became chief economist for the USDA in February 2008, at a time when American farmers were getting top dollar for crops and export demand was bigger than the supply. A year later, the bottom dropped out as a worldwide recession cut commodity prices by 40-50 percent and farm income plummeted by a third.

Glauber also testified at a congressional hearing on the effect that using corn for ethanol production has on food prices, saying bioenergy production raised food prices by close to 10 percent.

On the second day of the symposium, David Kaimowitz, director of the Natural Assets and Sustainability unit at the Ford Foundation, will talk on the sustainability of natural resources in the face of globalization and international development.