Wojciech Jan Florkowski
Dr. Florkowski left Poland for graduate studies in the United States in 1981 after more than a three year career in Poland’s agricultural state and cooperative sector.
Unpredictable global political events encouraged him to pursue Ph.D. studies after receiving his MS degree (both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). In 1986, he joined the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at The University of Georgia, Griffin.
His contributions stretch over several areas. He pioneered statistical analysis of Poland’s agricultural private, state, and cooperative sectors yielding a number of refereed journal articles. He continued the examination of the three agricultural sectors years before Poland’s 1989 transition to a market economy. Over the years, his research has examined the functioning of markets and environmental problems in Poland.
Dr. Florkowski was among the first to provide an economic analysis of agricultural biotechnology. His initial research on implications of adopting biotechnology in crop production extended into the then key, and still current, issues of consumer attitudes toward biotechnology. This consumer preference issue extends into investigating product quality aspects, often employing primary data collected through surveys.
Dr. Florkowski makes substantial contribution by investigating functioning of markets, marketing, and consumer preferences for a number of Georgia horticultural crops. During his tenure at Georgia, the pecan industry has been a major subject of his research with contributions encompassing difficult issues of storage and prices. He overcame the lack of industry data by formulating and implementing a number of primary data collection efforts. He undertook similar studies for several other horticultural crops as well as the golf and environmental horticulture sectors. He received many industry grants. Dr. Florkowski promotes multidisciplinary research and pursues numerous projects with scientists from other disciplines. Among his international contributions are his work on postharvest quality of fresh fruits and vegetables which emphasize the central role of consumer preferences.
Dr. Florkowski has conducted surveys in Germany, Bulgaria, the Republic of Korea, Ghana, and Uganda. He established working relationships with economists and non-economists in these countries and extensively published on various unique aspects of consumer behavior. Currently, he is involved in investigating consumer choices and behavior with the emphasis on peanuts and peanut products in sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Florkowski is an active advisor to graduate students. His advising style includes encouraging graduate students to focus on researchable practical issues based on empirical data. His students are frequent presenters at the SAEA and other national and international conferences.
Dr. Florkowski’s attended his first SAEA annual meeting in 1987. Later, he chaired the committee developing guidelines for the SAEA poster sessions. He served as the secretary of the SAEA for six years.
