Mordecai Ezekiel

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Mordecai Joseph Brill Ezekiel (May 10, 1899 to October 31, 1974) was an American agrarian economist who worked for the United States government and the United Nations for a number of years.

He is credited with formulating the details of what was to become the Agriculture Adjustment Administration, and helped prepare a draft of the Agricultural Adjustment Act. After the November 1932 presidential election, he also met with President-elect Franklin Roosevelt, Rexford Tugwell, M. L. Wilson, and Henry Morgenthau, Jr., to discuss the farm policy of the new administration.

He was also an early and long time participant with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Together with G.C. Haas, he helped describe the pork cycle.

[edit] Personal

Born in Richmond, VA, he was the son of Jacob and Rachel Brill Ezekiel. He had two brothers, Walter Naphtali Ezekiel, a plant pathologist, and Raphael Ezekiel, a graduate of West Point, and one sister, Bertha Brill Ezekiel (Topkis).

Ezekiel was married to Lucille Finsterwald and they had three children: David Jonathan and Margot.

[edit] Education

• Graduated in 1918 from the Maryland Agricultural College with a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture.
• Graduated in 1923 from the University of Minnesota with a Master of Science degree.
• Graduated in 1926 from the Robert Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in economics.
• Traveled abroad as a Guggenheim Fellow from September, 1930 to September, 1931.

[edit] Positions held

• 1930-1933 - Assistant Chief Economist for the Federal Farm Board
• 1933-1944 - Economic Advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture
  • 1943 - helped plan the Hot Springs Food Conference
• 1944-1947 - Economic Advisor in the Bureau of Agriculture Economics
  • 1944 - served as a member of the United Nations Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture
  • 1945 - served as a member of two of the FAO's first field missions to Greece and Poland.
• 1947-1962 - at FAO: Economist in charge of the Economic Analysis Branch, Deputy Director of the Economics Division, Head of the Economics Department, Assistant Director General in charge of the Economics Department, and Special Assistant to the Director General
• 1962-1967 - Chief of the United Nations Division of the United States Agency for International Development

[edit] External links

• Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum's description of and papers regarding Mordecai Ezekiel
• USDA special collection that include materail about this subject
• Mordecai Ezekiel References Outside the USDA History Collection