Rosen, Joseph A (1878–1949)

Russian-born US agronomist. He wrote a series of articles on US agriculture for a Russian publication. In 1909 he gave Michigan Agricultural College some Russian rye seed; named Rosen rye in his honour, it became the predominant rye grown in the Midwest USA. He introduced tractors to the Soviet Union and helped resettle thousands of Jewish farmers in the Ukraine and the Crimea.

He was born in Moscow. He was arrested in 1894 for being a revolutionary and was sent to Siberia. He escaped, eventually ending up in Michigan in 1903, where he worked on a farm and enrolled at Michigan Agricultural College in 1905. In 1921 he joined Herbert Hoover's American Relief Administration, representing the Joint Distribution Committee of the American Jewish Committee.