Gerald Bange

Gerald Bange, the chairman of the Agriculture Department’s World Agricultural Outlook Board since 1994, will retire on May 31 and Seth Meyer, a USDA senior economist will become acting chairman, USDA Chief Economist Joe Glauber announced Tuesday.

According to his official biography, Bange joined USDA in 1971 as an agricultural marketing specialist for the Agricultural Research Service.

In 1975 he transferred to the Foreign Agricultural Service as an agricultural economist. In 1981, he became director of the Foreign Production Estimates Division and, in January 1983, was appointed deputy assistant administrator for international agricultural statistics.

In October 1983, he transferred to the World Agricultural Outlook Board where he served as deputy chairman until 1994, when he was appointed chairman.

Bange has received many awards, including the USDA’s Superior Service Award, and is a two-time recipient of the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive.

He majored in agricultural economics at the University of Maryland where he earned a bachelor of science degree in 1966, a master of science degree in 1969, and a doctoral degree in 1975.

The World Agricultural Outlook Board is responsible for the monthly forecasts of the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report and also oversees the Joint Agricultural Weather Facility.

Bange has also served as program chairman for the annual Agricultural Outlook Forum, which has been hosted by USDA since 1923.

Meyer joined USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist in 2013 as a senior economist for domestic agricultural policy.

Before joining USDA, he was an economist in the Economic and Social Development Department at the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. He also served as a research associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri-Columbia as part of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute.