Dr. Chad Hellwinckel
Research Assistant Professor
Agricultural Policy Analysis Center
The University of Tennessee
3245 Morgan Hall
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-4519
Phone: (865) 974-5006
Fax: (865) 974-7298
chellwin@utk.edu
Chad’s work with the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center focuses on agricultural land use policies, climate change mitigation, biofuels analysis and defining appropriate long-term agricultural policy in a post peak-oil world. He maintains and uses computer models designed to estimate the local and national effects of implementing agricultural policies upon land-use, farm incomes and the environment. Current projects include building a geographically precise terrestrial carbon sequestration model which can also estimate potential quantities of biomass available from agricultural lands for energy uses. This model is being used to analyze the interactions between simultaneous climate change and biomass policies. Chad is also interested in the potential of regenerative agricultural systems in the post-peak oil, low-energy future. Regenerative agriculture refers to systems of agriculture that mimic the dynamics found in nature and allow natural systems to maintain their own fertility, sponsor their own energy needs, build soil, resist pests and diseases and be highly productive.
Chad received a doctorate in geography at the University of Tennessee in 2008. He received his MS in Agricultural Economics from the University of Tennessee in 1996, and a BS in Economics and Urban Studies from St. Olaf College in 1991. Chad has worked at The Land Institute, in Salina Kansas, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama and with the US Forest Service in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. He is also the founder of the Knoxville Permaculture Guild.
