The International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) will celebrate its 75th anniversary with a special colloquium Oct. 7-9 at Cornell University. The meeting will be held in the Myers Seminar Room, 401 Warren Hall, and is open to the public.

Speakers at the meeting will focus on issues affecting agriculture and economic development in some of the world's most important emerging societies, according to conference co-organizer Bernard Stanton, professor emeritus of agricultural economics at Cornell. Emphasis will be on discussion of the ideas in six keynote papers.

"We'll have a day and a half of full immersion to really listen and learn from each other," explained Stanton. "This gives a chance for participants from around the world to meet and agree on the things IAAE members can do collectively to affect public policy and help governments and institutions plan for the future."

Keynote speakers for the meeting will be:

• Soren Frandsen, director of the Danish Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University's Food and Resource Economics Institute;
• Steven Were Omamo, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Kenya;
• Jukin Huang, director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences;
• Ruben Echeverría, executive secretary of the Science Council of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research;
• Ashok Gulati, director of IFPRI's Markets, Trade and Institutions Division; and
• Bruce Gardner, professor and interim dean of the University of Maryland College of Agriculture.

The IAAE, with about 2,000 members worldwide, was formed at the instigation of Leonard Elmhirst, a 1921 Cornell agriculture graduate, with help from future agriculture Deans W.I. Myers and Carl E. Ladd and Professor George Warren, for whom Warren Hall is named. Elmhirst also is remembered for being married to Dorothy Payne Whitney Straight and for his help in planning Willard Straight Hall, erected in memory of Straight's first husband.

Other sponsors of this year's colloquium are the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service and Cornell. The keynote presentations are available online at http://www.aem.cornell.edu/iaae/.