Mordecai Ezekiel

Mordecai Joseph Brill Ezekiel (1899 to 1974) was an American agrarian economist who worked for the United States government and the Food and Agriculture Organization and helped shape Franklin D. Roosevelt's agricultural policy as a New Deal economic adviser. Born in Richmond, Virginia, he graduated from Maryland Agricultural College in 1918, took a master's degree at Minnesota in 1923 and a doctorate in economics at the Robert Brookings Graduate School. He is credited with formulating the details of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, was Assistant Chief Economist of the Federal Farm Board from 1930 to 1933 and economic adviser to the Secretary of Agriculture from 1933 to 1944, and described the pork cycle with G. C. Haas. From 1947 to 1962 he held senior economics posts at the FAO, ending as Assistant Director General and Special Assistant to the Director General, and he then chaired the UN Division of the U.S. Agency for International Development until 1967.