E. C. Pasour, Jr., is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University. He is the author of Agriculture and the State: Market Processes and Bureaucracy and has contributed to numerous books including Agriculture and Energy (W. Lockeretz, ed.), and Economy, Society and Public Policy (C. Pope and L. Wimmer, eds.).

Randal R. Rucker is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University. A contributor to numerous scholarly volumes, Professor Rucker is the author of many technical studies on natural resource and environmental issues.

Bruce L. Gardner (1942–2008), a graduate of the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago, was Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Maryland, College Park and Interim Dean, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Maryland. He was a Senior Staff Economist on the Presidents Council of Economic Advisors and Assistant Secretary for Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture.