$500-Million More Asked for Farm Research
Citing slipping U.S. competitiveness and increasing health risks, the National Academy of Sciences called Thursday for an annual $500-million increase in federally funded agricultural research.
Flying in the face of the federal budget deficit, the academy insisted that the tenfold increase in competitive grant money to the Agriculture Department must not come from juggling other agriculture funding, but must be “new funding.”
The academy made its pronouncement Thursday in a report outlining how the $500 million should be spent. The words “unlikely to be acquired without substantial new funding” run through the 155-page document like a mantra.
The United States faces “new and aggressive competition from abroad,” particularly in the area of agricultural trade, the report said. The proposed boost in research spending is needed to “revitalize and reinvigorate one of the leading industries, the agricultural, food and environmental system, in its broadest sense.”
Very Little Support
The report was published by the National Research Council, an arm of the academy, and was prompted by earlier council studies on the regulation of pesticides, alternative agriculture and the genetic engineering of food.
“Those three reports point to a radical shift in the direction of U.S. agriculture,” said Rick Borchelt, a spokesman for the academy. “What the council’s Board on Agriculture realized is that to make that shift a reality there needs to be a much stronger research support base.”
To date, that support has been severely lacking. In the past 25 years, agriculture has evolved from the mere growing and processing of foods and fibers into an industry forced to grapple with grave health and environmental concerns. Research money, however, has not followed suit.
Doubts It Will Get Funds
“Funding for agricultural research has gone down between 1965 and 1988,” said Theodore Hullar, chancellor of the University of California, Davis, and head of the Board on Agriculture. “During that time, we’ve had enormous changes. There have been much more stringent demands for environmental quality . . . and there is much fiercer competition from foreign countries.”
Although the USDA voiced support for the academy’s demands, Assistant Agriculture Secretary Charles E. Hess was dubious Thursday about whether the money would materialize.
“The federal government currently spends approximately $1.2 billion annually on agricultural research,” Hess said in a written statement. “To be perfectly candid, I would like to be able to endorse the funding program proposed in the initiative. But, as you realize, we operate within the constraints of the federal budget.”
In the agriculture appropriations bill before Congress, the House voted to fund $40 million in grants, while the Senate voted $45 million. The discrepancy will be resolved in conference committee.
“I think it’s pretty unlikely we’d get up to $500 million any time soon,” said Rocky Kuhn, counsel for the Senate Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on agriculture, rural development and related agencies.
