Video Transcript - Dr. John E. Lee, ERS Administrator 1982-1993

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Economic Research Service 

When I started at ERS it was basically farm and micro oriented: 
farm-management studies, farm growth studies, individual marketing 
strategies for farmers, that source of thing. 

But over time, we moved to more macro issues. Dealing with bigger 
national and international problems of significance, and globalization 
came along. But we were challenged to pull away from that, and that’s 
sometimes hard to do when people are dedicated to something they have 
been working on all their lives. 

(Narration slide: During Dr. Lee’s years at ERS an era of green eye 
shades gave way to computing.)

When I came here, we had whole batteries of stack clerks, of statistical 
assistants. Rooms just full of desk after desk after desk of Marchant 
Friden calculators, no computers, and you could hear it clinking away, 
it sounded like a casino when you go in there: ding, ding, all the time.