Testimony of the. Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. FY 2014 Appropriations for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative

Transcription

1 March 20, 2013 Contact: Tyrone Spady, PhD Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD Testimony of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology On FY 2014 Appropriations for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Submitted to the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Representative Robert Aderholt, Chairman Representative Sam Farr, Ranking Member The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) respectfully requests a fiscal year (FY) 2014 appropriation of a minimum of 325 million for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) within the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. This funding level would keep AFRI on a path to its authorized level of $700 million in the 2008 Food, Conservation, and Energy Act.

2 As a federation of 26 scientific societies, FASEB represents more than 100,000 life scientists and engineers, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. FASEB s mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences, including the research funded by AFRI, through service to its member societies and collaborative advocacy. FASEB enhances the ability of scientists and engineers to improve through their research the health, well-being, and productivity of all people. AFRI is the premier competitive grants program of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), supporting research, extension, and education projects at public, land grant universities and private institutions nationwide. AFRI facilitates collaborative, interdisciplinary research to address broad societal challenges and generate knowledge in high-priority areas of the food and agricultural sciences and translate these discoveries into agricultural practice. AFRI also encourages young scientists to pursue careers in agricultural research by providing research funding for over 1,700 of the nation s most promising pre- and postdoctoral scholars. Examples of recent USDA-funded research include: Preventing Foodborne Illness: Scientists are using multidisciplinary approaches to better understand the process by which disease-causing E. coli bacteria are released from the digestive tracts of cattle into the food supply. Research on the genetic, microbial, and environmental factors that cause the bacteria to spread throughout livestock populations will enable scientists to develop new strategies for reducing cattle infections and preventing food contamination. Page 2

3 Controlling the Spread of Disease: The emergence and transmission of infectious diseases among humans and other animals represent an enormous public health threat. In collaboration with National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, AFRI is supporting interdisciplinary teams of researchers to deepen our insight and to generate knowledge that will help policymakers to develop better strategies for prevention and suppression of zoonotic transmission to humans. Enabling the Production of Better Livestock: The completion of the swine genome project is helping us understand the genetic architecture underlying high-quality pork production, disease resistance, and the efficiency with which feed is converted to meat. Taken together, this new knowledge with enable the sustainable and more economical production of highquality pork by farmers. In addition, newly revealed similarities between the swine and human genomes contribute to our understanding of human health. Managing Agricultural Pests: A team of scientists supported by USDA is studying the genomes of soilborne microorganisms that severely damage soybeans and other crops. By identifying genes important for the pathogen s harmful effects on plants, scientists can develop strategies to manage disease and increase crop production. Extension specialists, economists, and biologists involved with the project will also ensure that the research is efficiently translated into technologies that benefit farmers, who lose an estimated $300 million to soybean root and stem rot diseases each year. Page 3

4 Training the Next Generation Agricultural Scientist: A new AFRI-funded fellowship program has been established to train and develop the next generation of agricultural, forestry, and food scientists and educators. In its first year, the program awarded a total of $6 million to 54 students from 32 universities across the country. Fellows are already advancing important research projects, including a study to identify sources of microbial contamination in imported foods. Appropriately Realizing the Potential of Agricultural Research Global food demand is expected to double by the year 2050, yet the amount of land available for agriculture is not expected to increase substantially. The world must address the increased demand for food while simultaneously meeting the need for better nutrition, new biofuel materials, sustainable agriculture practices, and food safety. The effective coordination of research, extension, and education activities like those supported by AFRI enables efficient translation of scientific discoveries into a broad range of solutions to some of our most daunting obstacles. The implementation of those solutions requires a robust and scientifically diverse agricultural research workforce. Agricultural research directly benefits all sectors of society and every geographic region of the country. The private sector relies on public investments to increase productivity, improve crops, and train future cohorts of agricultural scientists. Strong funding for AFRI is one effective way to attract outstanding scientists to careers in agricultural research. With the critical focus of its mission and the growing need for progress, AFRI is significantly underfunded relative to its current capacity. Because of the program s limited budget in FY 2010, only 60 percent of project proposals recommended for funding by review panels received support. This is woefully Page 4

5 inadequate to ensure viability of a research enterprise at the core of our economy. The estimated value of U.S. agricultural exports increased 32.2 percent between FY 2007 and FY 2010, illustrating the growing demand for agricultural products worldwide, yet the AFRI budget has stagnated since the program was established with an authorized funding level of $700 million in the 2008 Farm Bill. FASEB recommends at least $325 million for AFRI in FY This could support an additional 100 research grants. Given that the capacity of the agricultural research system is much greater, we support additional sustainable increases to reach the fully authorized level for AFRI as soon as feasible. Our recommended increase of $58.4 million would fund 100 additional projects. Thank you for the opportunity to offer FASEB's support for AFRI. Page 5