John Lossing Buck (27 November 1890 – 27 September 1975,[1][2] adopted the Chinese name 卜凱) was an American agricultural economist [3] specializing in the rural economy of China.
[7] In the following years Buck served in a series of significant posts, including U.S. Treasury Representative in China, Chief of the Land and Water Use Branch of FAO (United Nations) and Director for Agricultural Economics at the Council on Economic and Cultural Affairs.
After retiring in 1957, he continued giving lectures and writing, and served as a consultant for the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Among his published works from this period included Food and Agriculture in Communist China (Praeger, 1966) which he prepared for the Hoover Institution and co-authored with Owen L. Dawson and Yuan-Li Wu.
felt that Buck was too optimistic in finding that technological backwardness, not inequality of land distribution, was the main problem.