AProfessor Ken Thomson, of the Department of Agriculture & Forestry, has been appointed Chairman of a Milk Task Force set up by the Ministry of Agriculture to seek to identify scope for greater efficiencies within the milk and dairy supply chain.
The Task Force comprises 10 members, from farming, the dairy industry, retailing and academia. They will hold a series of meetings to discuss such topics as benchmarking, best practice, information flow and understanding between the various sectors of the milk and dairy supply chain. The final report of the Milk Task Force will be due by 31 March 2001.
The Milk Task Force has grown out of the Food Chain Group report that concluded the Ministry of Agriculture’s Food Chain Initiative, which took a wide look at the industries involved in the food chain as a whole and made recommendations for improvement.
The Milk Task Force is the pilot study for a similar set of studies which will focus on individual sectors of the food supply chain.
The work will be overseen by Ms Joyce Quin, Minister of State and Deputy Minister with responsibility for the food and drinks industry and marketing (including taking forward the Food Chain Initiative with industry).
Professor Thomson holds an MA in Mathematics from the University of Aberdeen, an MSc in Statistics and Operational Research from Imperial College London and an MS in Agricultural Economics from Iowa State University. Prior to his appointment in Aberdeen, he was a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Economics of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, from 1970 to 1986. He has held the post of Professor of Agricultural Economics, at the University of Aberdeen since 1986, and is presently the Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture & Forestry.
His main research expertise lies in agricultural policy and market analysis, particularly in Europe (west and east); quantitative modelling; land use in rural areas; international trade and rural development project formulation and management.
He is currently President-Elect of the UK Agricultural Economics Society, and is serving on the Agriculture Sub-Panel for the UK Research Assessment Exercise, 1999-2001. He has been a specialist advisor to a Parliamentary Committee on agricultural trade, and to the European Commission on the Common Agricultural Policy, and was a member of the Veterinary Manpower and Education Review (Page) Committee.
Further information from Christine Cook, University of Aberdeen, on 01224 272013
or
Cathy Wilson, Milk Task Force Secretariat, on 0207 270 8267
Issued by the Public Relations Office, External Relations, University of Aberdeen, King’s College, Aberdeen. Tel: 01224 272014 Fax: 01224 272086
University Press Office on telephone +44 (0)1224-273778 or email a.ramsay@admin.abdn.ac.uk.