Interests

Agribusiness -  Value-added agriculture and the economics of innovation, especially food product innovation; intellectual property and entrepreneurship; agricultural and corporate finance; agricultural cooperatives.

Biographical Info

Sporleder is Professor of Agribusiness and holds the Farm Income Enhancement (FIE) Endowed Chair. The FIE Program includes applied research and outreach in value-added agriculture, the economics of innovation, entrepreneurship, and small business development. He conducts applied research in economic aspects of the global food system, concentrating on the influence of technological change on global food supply chains. Current outreach activities include Heartland Agdeavor Association, a non-profit corporation serving entrepreneurs interested in commercializing innovation, and The Agripreneur, a bi-monthly virtual newsletter with specialized topics of interest to entrepreneurs. The FIE Program focuses on business opportunities from innovation and change in agriculture and the food system. The applied research emphasis on the economics of food product innovation and the economics of new industrial uses for agricultural commodities. Sporleder was on the agricultural economics faculty at Texas A&M University for nearly 20 years. He has industry experience with Campbell Soup Company and through serving on several Boards of Directors. He currently is Associate Editor of the Journal on Chain and Network Science and the AgBioForum Journal; past Associate Editor of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Review; Past-President of the Agribusiness Economics and Management Section of the American Agricultural Economics Association; on the Board of Directors of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association and chair of the Education and Knowledge Transfer Group of that Association. He also has served in an appointed position on two committees of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: the Food and Agriculture Committee and the Emerging Technologies Committee, in each case as the sole academic member of the Committee. He also is actively engaged in economic and financial consulting.