The historical development of Agricultural Economics as a field of applied economics has been well-documented in books and journals by scholars within the profession. The relationship of Agricultural Economics to other social, biological and natural sciences has changed as the discipline has emerged and as forces of science and technology have been brought to bear on problems of our society.

The objective of this paper is to define or establish the parameters of Agricultural Economics but offer personal views on how economic forces within our economy have influenced program development in research involving many disciplines. In this process I will emphasize some of the areas where Agricultural Economics has made a major contribution and, in my judgement, can play an important role in the future.