
David Blandford
David Blandford is a professor of agricultural and environmental economics, and former department head, in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education at the Pennsylvania State University. He obtained his PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Blandford was formerly a division director at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris and a professor at Cornell University. He has twice served as chair of the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium – an organization composed of researchers from government, academia and industry. Blandford was president of the Agricultural Economics Society of the United Kingdom in 2010/11. He teaches courses in agribusiness at Penn State and conducts research into food and agricultural policies, including their environmental, trade and rural development aspects. Recent research has focused on WTO commitments on agricultural support and the implications of climate change policies for agriculture. Blandford has served as a consultant on policy issues for a range of international organizations including the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the OECD, and the World Bank.