Agricultural and Natural Resource Economist
Rocky Mountain West Regional Office
Topic Areas: Business Planning and Marketing, Crops, Organic Crops, Organic Livestock, Farm Energy, Local Foods, Policy, Soil Health
Specific Areas of Expertise: Crop insurance, conservation, national agriculture public policy, transgenics (genetically-modified organisms), blockchain agriculture supply-chain management, soil health, biochar, and the role of agriculture in climate disruption
Jeff Schahczenski’s work for the National Center for Appropriate focuses on education on crop insurance, conservation, national agriculture public policy, transgenics (genetically-modified organisms), blockchain agriculture supply-chain management, soil health, biochar, and the role of agriculture in climate disruption. He was a past elected member of the Organizational Council of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, past Executive Director of the Big Hole River Foundation and the Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (WSAWG), and pas adjunct instructor at Montana Technological University, Montana Western University, the University of Montana. Jeff has built his own strawbale house and greenhouse. He raises poultry and is has been a commercial beekeeper. Before moving to Montana in 1991, Jeff worked for Rutgers University, started one of the first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms in New Jersey, received graduate degrees in agricultural economics and political science, served in the Peace Corps in Belize, Central America, and worked many summers on his grandfather’s dairy farm in Wisconsin.
Education:
Master of Science in Political Science, University of Florida
Master of Science in Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia
Bachelor of Science in Economics and Business, Beloit College
Current Professional Affiliations and Committees:
Member of the Soil and Water Conservation Society
Member of the Montana Natural Resources and Conservation Service State Technical Advisory Committee
Member of the Policy committee of the Montana Organic Association
Featured Publications and Presentations:
Is Organic Farming Risky? Improving Crop Insurance for Organic Farms
Federal Working Lands Conservation Resources for Sustainable Farming and Ranching
Organic Pulses Production, Economics, and Marketing
Belasco, Eric and Jeff Schahczenski. 2020. Is Organic Farming Risky? An Evaluation of WFRP in Organic and Conventional Production Systems. Agricultural and Resource Economics, p.1-13.
Schahczenski, Jeff and Celia Schahczenski, 2020. Blockchain and the Resurrection of Consumer Sovereignty in a Sustainable Food Economy. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development