Prior to his position at California State University, Mechel Paggi held positions in Washington, D.C., as principal analyst for agriculture at the Congressional Budget Office and served as the executive director of the congressionally mandated Commission on 21st Century Agriculture. From 1995 to 1998, Dr. Paggi served as senior economist at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy. From 1988 to 1995, Dr. Paggi was a senior economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, where he spent much of the period working on international trade negotiations and assisting in overseas market development and education programs with the bureau's International Trade Committee.