The Curse of Agricultural Abundance: A Sustainable Solution. W. W. Cochrane. 2003. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln. 156 pp. $35 cloth.

Coming of age during the Vietnam War, I was a city boy with a tendency toward the counterculture. Staying focused in college was tough. After switching majors six times, I chose agriculture as my course of study, for a selfish reason—I thought the food industry was somewhat impervious to recession and depression cycles and I would perhaps always be employed if I learned about something related to food. I settled in as a student in an Agricultural Business Administration Program at the University of Minnesota, where from 1974 to 1978, Willard W. Cochrane and economist John Helmberger introduced me and other students to agricultural economics. Professors Cochrane and Helmberger would forever change my worldview from self-interest to a more global perspective.