Henry Erdman was an agricultural economist and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Born 1884 in what was then still the Dakota territory, he graduated from South Dakota State Agricultural College in 1911 and, following several years working as a buttermaker, attended the University of Wisconsin for agricultural economics and received his doctorate degree in 1920. Beginning in 1922, he became a full time professor at UC Berkeley and later served as chairman of the university’s Department of Agricultural Economics, established in 1926. Erdman was also the author of three books on marketing and agriculture, including “The Marketing of Whole Milk.” In this interview, he discusses his early work in the dairy industry, the beginnings of the College of Agriculture, The Giannini Foundation, the Purnell Act, the rise of cooperatives, and his extensive research in agricultural economics.