The Farm Foundation has named Dr. Sunghun Lim as its 2025 Agricultural Economics Trade and Sustainability Fellow. Dr. Lim is an Assistant Professor of International Agribusiness and Director of the LSU Global Value Chains Program in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at Louisiana State University.
Farm Foundation’s Agricultural Economics Fellow program is a yearlong program for a faculty agricultural economist. The 2025 fellowship is focused on integrated systems approaches to understanding and overcoming the challenges in developing a greater understanding of how trade and sustainability are interconnected and are impacting the food and agricultural sectors in the United States and beyond in rapidly changing circumstances.
“We are pleased to welcome Dr. Lim to our esteemed Agricultural Economics Fellowship program,” says Tim Brennan, vice president, programs and strategic impact at Farm Foundation in a news release. “His research interests in international trade and agricultural policy set the stage for a fruitful collaboration towards advancing Farm Foundation’s ongoing work in agricultural trade and international sustainability policy.”
In addition to being mentored by staff in USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist, Lim in turn will mentor participants in the Farm Foundation and USDA Economic Research Service Agricultural Scholars program, among other engagements.
His research has been published in leading academic journals, including the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Nature Communications, NBER Book Series, Food Policy, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Handbook of Agricultural Economics, and The World Economy.
He earned his BS in Economics in 2013 and his MS in Agricultural and Resource Economics in 2015 from the University of California, Davis. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota in 2020.
Dr. Lim is Farm Foundation’s fifth Agricultural Economics Fellow and succeeds Dr. Sandro Steinbach (North Dakota State University), Drs. Trey Malone (University of Arkansas), Amanda Countryman (University of Colorado), and Alejandro Plastina (University of Iowa).
Farm Foundation Opens Innovation and Education Campus
In September, 2024, nearly 150 people joined Farm Foundation in Libertyville, Ill., to celebrate the grand opening of the Farm Foundation Innovation and Education Campus, described as a special new hub for the food and agriculture sectors. The Innovation and Education Center will be Farm Foundation’s new home, replacing the office space currently held in Oak Brook, Ill., according to a news release issued by the Farm Foundation.
The Innovation and Education Center (IEC) houses a multi-media room, flexible gathering spaces, and a demonstration kitchen. The facility is also envisioned as an ideal meeting space where key players can come together to advance solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing agriculture. The farm campus was selected for its ease of access by all forms of transportation, the natural beauty of the farm and surrounding area, and the multiple purposes the property enables.
Farm Foundation President and CEO Shari Rogge-Fidler and Farm Foundation Board Chair Dan Basse provide opening remarks during the grand opening celebration for the Farm Foundation Innovation and Education Center. Photo Credit: Farm Foundation.
“This building will house experts and advocates in collaboration working together to build ideas and solutions to take action to change agriculture for generations to come,” said Honorable Michael Johanns, former United States Secretary of Agriculture. He was followed by Ambassador Darci Vetter, head of global public policy at PepsiCo, who spoke to innovations in the agri-food supply chain; and Chancellor Robert Jones of the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, who addressed the importance of radical collaborations and place-based strategies, hallmarks of the vision for the Farm Foundation IEC. “The challenges that we face are too large and too complex for any one entity to solve alone,” Jones said.
Another highlight of that event was the many in-field demonstrations of innovations in agriculture from Beck’s Hybrids, InnerPlant, John Deere, Purdue Extension UAV, Syngenta, and the University of Illinois Center for Digital Ag.
The stated mission of the Farm Foundation is to “Build trust and understanding at the intersections of agriculture and society … provide the necessary space for agriculture to respond to the evolving needs of the communities we serve, and for those communities to understand and support the essential work of those throughout the food and ag value chain.” The organization, established in 1933, which notes it offers “The reliability of a “think tank with the impact of a “do tank,” also “leverages the power of collaboration between food and agricultural stakeholders with diverse perspectives to spark beneficial solutions that will advance agriculture in positive ways.”