Coalition asks Congress for more funding to support agricultural research

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UNIVERSITY PARK Pa. — The head of Penn State’s Department of Entomology is among a coalition that includes top scientists from 11 research universities in Washington, D.C, today (March 2) calling for stronger federal support of the food and agricultural sciences.Pointing to achievements that include a new process to remove allergens from peanuts, the group’s just-released report, “Retaking the Field — Strengthening the Science of Farm and Food Production,” reviews research projects funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative at each institution.
“This effort by the coalition of universities sets the table for stronger support of food and agricultural science in the 2018 Farm Bill,” said Gary Felton, professor and department head of entomology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. He and his colleagues conducted one of the studies highlighted in the report. They analyzed how the saliva of caterpillars and other insect excretions trigger the defenses of crop plants, providing a new path for plant breeders to explore as they develop more resistant cultivars.
A drought in federal funding of food and agricultural research exists, according to Thomas Grumbly, president of the Supporters of Agricultural Research Foundation.
“USDA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative program, the agency’s premier source of competitively awarded grants, generates the science that keeps our farms healthy,” he said. “But farmers need a flood of research breakthroughs, and the initiative’s limited budget only allows for a trickle.”
The new “Retaking the Field” report shows how scientists are solving some of the thorniest questions in food production despite the USDA’s limited research budget. Even as the research budget for all federal agencies has climbed, the USDA’s share has nearly been cut in half.
Grumbly, with the Supporters of Agricultural Research Foundation, notes that funding levels in the USDA’s Agriculture and Food ...

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