College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Bio-Info

Professor Emeritus Lawrence W. Witt was born on a farm near Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1914. His appointment at MSU was 50 percent teaching and 50 percent research. He was President, American Farm Economic Association, 1966-67, and Vice-President 1955-56.  He was Book Review Editor, 1949-51 and Editor, 1952-54, of the Journal of Farm Economics. He was also an Associate in the Institute of Current World Affairs, 1941-43.

Before joining MSU in 1947, we was a Senior agricultural economist in USDA, 1943-46 working and traveling in Latin America.  He spent Sabbatical leave of 1952-53 was spent with the American Universities Field Staff lecturing in the United States on Brazil. His 1965 sabbatical was spent in Arizona studying irrigation projects in Mexico and Southwestern United States.

During January-June 1961 he was a consultant with White House Offices of George McGovern, Special Representative of President Kennedy for Food for Peace.  He has also served as consultant to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the Agricultural Colleges of Colombia, the University of Ankara, Turkey, the Economic Research Service of the USDA, the Committee for Economic Development and the Inter-American Bank.  In 1966, he was on assignment in Brazil for the Midwestern Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA) to work with the National Research Council of Brazil.

Languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, German.

Students

Student Mentoring

• View list of advisees and respective theses/dissertations topics

Teaching Experience

•  Agricultural and economic development and agricultural trade

Pubs Online

• MSU Library
• AgEconSearch
• USAID Development Experience Clearing House (DEC) 
• Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA) Cornell University Library
• JSTOR author search
• Books World Cat

Notable Docs/Pres

• Food for Peace, Pl: 480 and American Agriculture. 1970. by Douglas Hedley and David Peacock.
• Agriculture in Economic Development. 1964.  Edited by Carl K. Eicher and Lawrence W. Witt.  Introductory Chapter
• Towards An International Dimension at Michigan State University. 1959. by Lawrence W. Witt.
• Larry Witt Letters From Brazil. 1953. Letters Written by Lawrene. W. Witt from an Assignment With The Institute of Current Foreign Affairs in Brazil.  (Need to register a password to view these letters, but it is easy)
• Research Bulletin 307. Economic Problems of Low Income Farmers in Iowa.1942. by Lawrence W. Witt.  Iowa State University.
• Publication Series at MSU Which Professor Witt helped Start:
  • A Program of Research on Food for Peace: A Series of Reports by the Economic and Agricultural Development Institute, Michigan State University.
  • Effects of Public Law 480 programs in Colombia: 1955-62: A Progress Report to the Economic Research service of the United States Dept. of Agriculture.