R. James Bingen was born August 4, 1943 in Decatur, Illinois. He earned his B.A. from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (1966), his M.A. from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1967) and his Ph.D. from University of California-Los Angeles (1983).

Bingen and his wife, Linda, served in the Peace Corps in Benin from 1967-1969. He received a Ford Foundation Foreign Area Fellowship to study agricultural economics at Michigan State University and research in Mali (1975-1976).

From 1977-1979, he worked on the Sahel Development Program in the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington, DC.

Bingen came to Michigan State University in 1979 as a specialist in the Department of Agricultural Economics where he was project manager for the African Rural Economy Program until 1982. From 1983 to 1986, as assistant professor, he served as the MSU Field Project Director of the Senegal Agricultural Research and Planning Project in Dakar, Senegal. Bingen held a joint appointment as an associate professor with the Institute of International Agriculture from 1986-1989. He joined the Department of Resource Development in 1989. In 1996 he was appointed professor in the Department of Community, Agriculture and Resource Studies.

Other appointments that Bingen has held include acting director of the MSU African Studies Center (1994-1995), Visiting Scientist in the Rural Institutions and Participation Service of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2000 to 2001), and Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria (October 2009-January 2010).

Bingen is a professor emeritus of Community, Food and Agriculture in the Department of Community Sustainability since July 2013.