Lester R. Brown: Author, Ecologist and Economist

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In the fall of 1958, 1 decided I wanted to join the Foreign Agricultural Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in Washington. Before I could do that, however, I had to have a degree in agricultural economics. So I stopped off in College Park-at the University of Maryland?in the fall of 1958, and in June of 1959 1 finished my degree and joined the Department.

PLOWBOY: That was a master's in agricultural economics?

Millions of automobiles being purchased this year will still be on the road when the oil wells begin to go dry in a major way.

BROWN: Right. After I got that degree, I was at the Department of Agriculture for a few years in the international side as an analyst. I worked on world food trends. In 1961, I went back to school-this time Harvard-to get another degree: my master's in public administration. After that, I went back to the Department of Agriculture and began a study of world food needs, in which I tried to project certain trends to the end of the century.

PLOWBOY: That was a study entitled Man, Land, and Food ... is that correct?

BROWN: Yes. That was in May 1963. U.S. News and World Report did a cover story on that in early 1964, and Orville Freeman-who was Secretary of Agriculture then?called me about it. We had not met before. Thanks to that study, it was only a matter of months until I became Freeman's adviser for foreign agricultural policy.

I was the Secretary's adviser for two or three years before he asked me to head the International Agricultural Development Service, which is the technical assistance arm of the Department. That's what I did from 1966 to 1969.

PLOWBOY: When did you decide to leave government?

BROWN: Well actually, I decided to leave in late '68, before the election ... although I didn't vacate my post until early 1969. 1 decided to leave mainly because I felt that I had done all that I could do at that point in my career. That chapter of my life was coming to a close, I had decided.

PLOWBOY: So what did you do then?

BROWN: I helped start the Overseas Development Council, which is just across the street here. I was with ODC a total of five years, during which time I wrote four books: Seeds of Change, World Without Borders, In the Human Interest, and By Bread Alone. The last book was written in conjunction with Erik Eckholm.

PLOWBOY: When did you decide to start the Worldwatch Institute?

BROWN: Three of us at the Overseas Development Council Erik Eckholm, Blondeen Duhaney, and myself-started this institute in early 1975. We began with a half-million-dollar start-up grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. We've since gotten funding from the Kettering Foundation, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Agency for International Development, the Federal Energy Administration, and several U.N. sources.

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