He used his common sense and the advice of agricultural economist George Warren to devalue an artificially overvalued dollar to counteract a crippling deflation of commodities prices and get the economy and employment moving again.

FORBES: The Newt Gingrich Swing: For The Fences

Michael Sykuta, an agricultural economist at the University of Missouri, told CNN that a single construction job normally spins off two or perhaps three indirect jobs at most.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The U.S. avocado supply has roughly tripled since the mid-1990s, says Roberta Cook, an agricultural economist at the University of California, Davis, based on analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

WSJ: Avocado Sales Are Rising, as Consumers Buy Into the Fruit as a Source of 'Healthy Fats'

Mr. JOHN URBANCHUK (Agricultural Economist): So much of everything that we American consumers consume really spends a lot of time on the highway in trucks that burn diesel fuel.

NPR: Energy Costs Drive Up Prices of Nearly Everything

The focus on data is intentional: While other classes teach ag students how to repair combines or learn the proper chemical mixes of common fertilizers, students in agricultural economist Kevin Moore's "Returning to the Farm" class create business plans using financial information from their own family farms.

NPR: Future Heads Of Family Farms Dig Into Financials

Graham Brookes is an agricultural economist with the UK-based consultancy business PG Economics and author of 13 peer reviewed papers on the economic and environmental impact of genetically engineered crops.

FORBES: How Groundbreaking New Technologies Are Smothered By Anti-Technology Ideologues

John Curtice, of the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends, has been studying agricultural politics for The Economist.

ECONOMIST: Charge of the country brigade