Deputy Economics Community Leader Professor Marius Michels from Humboldt University in Berlin (Germany) has successfully been elected un-opposed as the incoming ISPA Economics Community Deputy Leader.   Marius Michels, who grew up on an arable farm, pursued a bachelor's degree in agricultural sciences with a specialization in crop sciences at the Georg-August University of Göttingen, Germany in 2013. Subsequently, he commenced a master's program in economic and social sciences of agriculture at the same university, completing it in 2016. His PhD thesis centered on the utilization of smartphones for agricultural purposes.   At present, Marius Michels is a visiting professor at Humboldt University in Berlin, where he directs the department of quantitative agricultural economics. His primary research interest pertains to digitalization in agriculture, with a particular emphasis on analyzing farm-level decision-making. Additionally, he actively investigates risk management strategies for farms, the agricultural land market, agricultural policies, as well as behavioral and experimental economics. The ISPA Economics Community greatly appreciates Marius’ commitment and support and look forward to his leadership.   ISPA Economics Community Event During the 18th & 19th September 2023 the ISPA Economics Community will be hosting a special session at the 6th Symposium on Agri-Tech Economics for Sustainable Futures organised by Harper Adams University, UK. The session will be focused on the Economics and Adoption of Precision Agriculture. We are very excited to announce that the keynote speaker for the session is Professor Jess (James) Lowenberg-DeBoer (co-editor of the journal Precision Agriculture 2016-2022 and past president of the ISPA) who will be presenting on Lessons Learned in 30 years of Precision Agriculture Research.   The session is part of an in-person symposium at Harper Adams University in the UK, with discounted on-campus accommodation available and a very sociable conference dinner. You are invited to showcase your work and discuss it among world leading peers and fellow Economics Community members. The call for papers is currently open and closes on the 10th July 2023 and we encourage ISPA members to consider submitting their work. For more information go to: https://www.agritechecon.co.uk/

Bullet points regarding the Economics Community meeting at ICPA in Montreal, June 2018: Terry Griffin, Founding Leader, from Kansas State University  and Jordan Shockley, Founding Vice Leader, from the University of Kentucky initiated the first economics community meeting 26 people were in attendance plus 2 that called into the meeting. Those in the meeting represented a wide range of backgrounds, locations, and experience in PA (not just economists) Many topics were discussed but two areas the committee decided to move forward with were: (1) economics of autonomous machinery and (2) pulling together adoption data and research from the global perspective. Jordan Shockley (University of Kentucky) agreed to be the new Leader of the Economcis Community while Jiali Shang (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) agreed to be the new Vice Leader