[Senate Hearing 117-613]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 117-613
FARM BILL 2023: RESEARCH PROGRAMS
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE,
NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
December 6, 2022
__________
Printed for the use of the
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available on http://www.govinfo.gov/
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
51-394 PDF WASHINGTON : 2024
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COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY
DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan, Chairwoman
PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado JONI ERNST, Iowa
KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, New York CINDY HYDE-SMITH, Mississippi
TINA SMITH, Minnesota ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas
RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
CORY BOOKER, New Jersey CHARLES GRASSLEY, Iowa
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico JOHN THUNE, South Dakota
RAPHAEL WARNOCK, Georgia DEB FISCHER, Nebraska
MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
Erica Chabot, Majority Staff Director
Chu-Yuan Hwang, Majority Chief Counsel
Jessica L. Williams, Chief Clerk
Fitzhugh Elder IV, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Tuesday, December 6, 2022
Page
Hearing:
Farm Bill 2023: Research Programs................................ 1
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STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY SENATORS
Stabenow, Hon. Debbie, U.S. Senator from the State of Michigan... 1
Boozman, Hon. John, U.S. Senator from the State of Arkansas...... 2
WITNESSES
Panel I
Jacobs-Young, Hon. Chavonda, Under Secretary For Research,
Education, and Economics, United States Department of
Agriculture, Washington, DC.................................... 4
Panel II
Rowntree, Jason, Ph.D., CS Mott Chair of Sustainable Agriculture;
Director, MSU Center For Regenerative Agriculture; Professor,
Department of Animal Science, Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI.................................................... 28
Nave, Felecia, M., Ph.D., President, Alcorn State University,
Lorman, MS..................................................... 30
Rainey, Katy Martin, Ph.D., Associate Professor; Director, Purdue
Soybean Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.......... 32
Ela, Steve, Partner and Manager, Ela Family Farms, Hotchkiss, CO. 34
Fields, Deacue, Ph.D., Vice President For Agriculture, University
of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, Little Rock, AR.... 36
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APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Jacobs-Young, Chavonda....................................... 46
Rowntree, Jason, Ph.D........................................ 51
Nave, Felecia M., Ph.D....................................... 55
Rainey, Katy Martin, Ph.D.................................... 61
Ela, Steve................................................... 67
Fields, Deacue, Ph.D......................................... 73
Document(s) Submitted for the Record:
Boozman, Hon. John:
U.S. Farm Productivity, document for the Record.............. 78
Fischer, Hon. Deb:
University of Nebraska Lincoln, prepared statement for the
Record..................................................... 79
Question and Answer:
Jacobs-Young, Hon. Chavonda:
Written response to questions from Hon. John Boozman......... 84
Written response to questions from Hon. Sherrod Brown........ 98
Written response to questions from Hon. Amy Klobuchar........ 106
Written response to questions from Hon. Michael F. Bennet.... 110
Written response to questions from Hon. Kirsten E. Gillibrand 112
Written response to questions from Hon. Ben Ray Lujan........ 120
Written response to questions from Hon. Raphael Warnock...... 124
Written response to questions from Hon. Joni Ernst........... 126
Written response to questions from Hon. Roger Marshall....... 127
Written response to questions from Hon. John Thune........... 131
Rowntree, Jason, Ph.D.:
Written response to questions from Hon. Kirsten E. Gillibrand 137
Written response to questions from Hon. John Thune........... 139
Nave, Felecia M., Ph.D.:
Written response to questions from Hon. Kirsten E. Gillibrand 141
Written response to questions from Hon. Raphael Warnock...... 145
Rainey, Katy Martin, Ph.D.:
Written response to questions from Hon. Kirsten E. Gillibrand 148
Written response to questions from Hon. John Thune........... 151
Ela, Steve:
Written response to questions from Hon. John Thune........... 153
Fields, Deacue, Ph.D.:
Written response to questions from Hon. Kirsten E. Gillibrand 156
Written response to questions from Hon. John Thune........... 159
FARM BILL 2023: RESEARCH PROGRAMS
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Tuesday, December 6, 2022
U.S. Senate
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room
328A, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Debbie Stabenow,
Chairwoman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Stabenow, Brown, Bennet, Smith, Booker,
Lujan, Boozman, Hoeven, Ernst, Hyde-Smith, Marshall,
Tuberville, Grassley, Thune, Fischer, and Braun.
STATEMENT OF HON. DEBBIE STABENOW, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE
OF MICHIGAN, CHAIRWOMAN, U.S. COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE,
NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY
Chairwoman Stabenow. Well, good morning. I call this
hearing to order. I want to welcome Under Secretary Jacobs-
Young and our panel of expert witnesses. Wonderful to see you
again and have you in front of us.
I appreciate you all being here today as we review the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's research, extension, and related
programs ahead of the 2023 Farm Bill. Before the Thanksgiving
holiday, Ranking Member Boozman and I held the first in a
series of hearings here in D.C. focused on our shared goal:
passing another bipartisan farm bill. With respect to the
Research title, I look forward to working with Senator Booker
and Senator Braun, who are the Chair and Ranking Member of the
Subcommittee, and with every member of this Committee.
On our agenda today is a topic of great importance--
agriculture research, extension, and education. We cannot have
a thriving economy if we do not make things and grow things,
and agriculture research helps us do exactly that. Just last
month, the United Nations estimated that the world population
surpassed eight billion people. That is eight billion people
who need access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food.
Innovation through agriculture research is central to global
food security. Thanks to the progress achieved through
research, we can boost the profitability and resiliency of our
farms while adapting to and mitigating the climate crisis. It
is our incredible extension and education systems that deliver
valuable research findings into the hands of farmers, as well
as consumers, and communities.
Through the support of this Committee, USDA's research
agencies are advancing cutting-edge science and rigorous
economic analysis on behalf of our farmers and ranchers. In the
2018 Farm Bill, members of this Committee secured much-needed
investments in USDA's agricultural research programs. That
includes $185 million for the Foundation for Food and
Agriculture Research, which leverages public investments with
private funds to address real-world issues facing our farmers
and ranchers. We secured investments for our organic farmers,
as well as reauthorized the Specialty Crop Research Initiative,
benefiting Michigan's many cherry, blueberry, and asparagus
growers, as well as, of course, others across the country. For
the first time, we authorized the Urban, Indoor, and Emerging
Agriculture Initiative.
The 2018 Farm Bill also benefited our land-grant
universities, like my alma mater, Michigan State University,
and the University of Arkansas. Land-grant universities are
vital partners in conducting agriculture research, delivering
cooperative extension, and training the next generation of
leaders in the food and agriculture sector. Investments in
research and extension are absolutely essential. Demand for
these Farm Bill programs continues to outpace the available
resources, and yet, in recent years, funding for public
agriculture research here in the U.S. has declined, which is
concerning.
Meanwhile, China has quintupled its investment in public
agriculture research since 2000, and now invests twice as much
as the U.S. does. As our farmers work to tackle the climate
crisis, navigate constantly changing markets, and feed a
growing global population, investments in agriculture research
and trustworthy economic data will only become more important.
I look forward to hearing testimony from Under Secretary
Jacobs-Young and our panel of stakeholders.
Let me now turn to my friend and our Ranking Member,
Senator Boozman.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BOOZMAN, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF
ARKANSAS
Senator Boozman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to
also thank our witnesses for taking the time to join us today.
Whether you are visiting us from the farm, from campus, or from
the Whitten Building, you provide an important perspective on
how the farm bill enhances agricultural research, and for that,
we are very grateful.
As Senator Stabenow just said, last month, the world
population reached eight billion people, and according to most
projections, we will add our next billion people in less than
15 years. Our growing population will need access to affordable
and high-quality grains, oils, and proteins, and the American
farmer is well positioned to meet this demand due to our
continued investments in our academic institutions and
agricultural research.
As we begin drafting the new farm bill, our priorities must
take into consideration what is happening on the international
stage. The world has been teetering on the brink of a massive
food crisis for some time now. The Russian conflict in Ukraine,
two grain exporting countries whose products feed some of the
most vulnerable people in the world, has added fuel to that
fire. The misguided government policies by some global leaders
are only making matters worse.
What happened in Sri Lanka is a perfect example. Sri Lanka
was self-sufficient for most dietary staples, until its
leadership instituted a ban on synthetic fertilizer and
mandated an organics-only approach. A third of Sri Lanka's
farmable land went fallow, food prices soared, and a man-made
hunger crisis was created as a result.
While Sri Lanka's plight was largely brought about by its
own leadership's shortsighted decisions, it is important that
we learn the right lessons from that catastrophe. This is what
makes the research title of the farm bill so very, very
important.
Innovation is the answer to the challenge of feeding our
growing population, as well as giving our farmers and ranchers
the ability to help meet the needs of an ever-changing global
dynamic.
According to USDA's Economic Research Service, U.S. farmers
produce three times as much agricultural output today as they
did in 1950, while total inputs have remained virtually
unchanged. It is our job to continue these advancements by
providing the American agricultural research enterprise with
the resources and infrastructure that they need to do it.
The farm bill is the most important and consistent
opportunity to invest in agricultural research and extension.
From programs that build capacity at our Nation's land-grant
institutions to world renowned competitive grant programs such
as the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, this important
title of the farm bill provides a broad array of authority and
investment in agricultural research.
Congress first recognized the need for agricultural
research in 1862 and 1890, with the passage of the First and
Second Morrill Act. At the time, a novel concept to further
agricultural research, extension and education. In fact, each
of our witnesses today, as well as both myself and the
Chairwoman, are products of distinguished land-grant
institutions.
The success of the land-grant system is a major priority.
In my view, this Federal, State and local partnership is the
most capable vehicle to conduct and deliver research outcomes
to farmers, ranchers, and consumers. The value of the land-
grant system cannot be overstated, and I look forward to
working together to strengthen this system in the next farm
bill.
Additionally, it is my goal to deliver a farm bill that
provides focus and clarity to USDA's research enterprise.
American agriculture is best served when we target our efforts
and have focused, well-funded, and flexible research programs
that can have widespread impact and find broad stakeholder
support.
Again, I would like to thank each of the witnesses for
their testimony today, and I thank the Chairwoman for
continuing our preparations for the next farm bill, which will
be here before you know it.
With that I yield back.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much, and also just let
me say, on a personal note, that I think that our Ranking
Member has a birthday on Saturday. In advance, happy birthday.
We will not ask you how old you will be.
Senator Boozman. Well, when the candles are lit it looks
like a forest fire.
[Laughter.]
Chairwoman Stabenow. All right. We will have the Forest
Service there to help handle that.
I am going to Senator Hyde-Smith, who I know is not going
to be available for the second panel but has a special
witnesses from her State.
Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you so much, Chairwoman and
Ranking Member, and I am going to ask Dr. Felecia Nave to stand
right now. It is truly my pleasure to introduce this lady. She
is the President of Alcorn State University in Lorman,
Mississippi. Alcorn is the oldest public land-grant HBCU in the
entire country, serving 3,000 students from 37 States and 22
countries.
Since arriving at Alcorn three years ago, Dr. Nave has
expanded university strategic partnerships, overseen record
contributions to the school, and led important upgrades to
facilities and infrastructure. She has really done a great job.
Dr. Nave is a member of the Executive Committee of the 1890
Council of Presidents and oversees Alcorn's Socially
Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Policy Center. She earned a
bachelor's degree in chemistry from Alcorn and a master's in
chemical and environmental engineering, and a Ph.D. in
engineering from the University of Toledo.
I just want to welcome you, Mr. James Hill would be so
proud, and so would his children. Thank you for being here.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you, Senator, and Dr. Nave, we
look forward to hearing you as a part of our second panel.
We will now turn to our Under Secretary. We want to welcome
back to the Committee Under Secretary Chavonda Jacobs-Young. It
is always wonderful to see you. Dr. Jacobs-Young was confirmed
by the U.S. Senate to serve as the Under Secretary for
Research, Education, and Economics on June 7, 2022. She also
serves as USDA's chief scientist.
In her role, Under Secretary Jacobs-Young supports our
farmers and ranchers and communities by advancing critical
agricultural research and economic data at the USDA. As a
dedicated public servant she has served in various roles at the
Department, including as the former Administrator of the
Agricultural Research Service.
We are so pleased to have you in your position, and we
welcome you today.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE CHAVONDA JACOBS-YOUNG, UNDER
SECRETARY FOR RESEARCH, EDUCATION, AND ECONOMICS, U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, WASHINGTON, DC
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Thank you. Chairwoman Stabenow, Ranking
Member Boozman, and members of the Committee, thank you for the
opportunity to come before you today to discuss the state of
USDA's Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area,
which includes The National Institute of Food and Agriculture
(NIFA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Economic Research
Service (ERS), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS),
and the Office of the Chief Scientist.
The success of the REE mission area is rooted in
partnerships, partnerships with technical assistance providers
that give producers the tools they need to adapt as they feed
the world, partnerships with institutions to advance
agricultural innovation and cultivate the next generation of
agricultural leaders, and partnerships with Congress, to assure
that decisionmakers have the tools they need to support farmers
and ranchers across the country.
Agriculture research often has a less-told story, but we
live and reap the benefit of it every single day. The impacts
of this research shape the way we eat, clothe ourselves, and
adapt to a changing climate. For example, in Kansas, NASS
collects winter wheat data, data that is so important to our
producers. ARS conducts research on grain quality and also
breeds crops for genetic solutions to damaging stresses like
leaf and stem rust and Fusarium head blight. This research
helps producers make informed decisions for their operations.
Production agriculture requires constant innovation and
adaptation, as farmers and ranchers pursue climate-smart
solutions to extreme weather, as rural businesses seek new
markets, and as underserved communities seek trusted partners
to tackle systemic issues.
Access to information and new technologies underpins each
of these objectives, and when appropriately resourced, REE is
well-positioned to be a partner in providing timely research,
data, training, extension services, and economic analysis to
support informed decisionmaking.
The U.S. has a long track record of making investments in
research that pays off for farmers and our economy. Between
1948 and 2019, total agriculture output in the United States
grew by 142 percent. This rise cannot be attributed to increase
in agricultural land or labor--both inputs declined over this
period--but stem instead from the adoption of a whole suite of
publicly funded innovations, in crop and livestock breeding,
nutrient use, pest management, and farm and field management.
These new practices have yielded significant dividends. ERS
found that public agriculture research and development
investments from 1900 to 2011 generated, on average, $20 in
benefits to the U.S. economy for every $1 of spending.
Yet Federal investments in agricultural research have
declined by a third in the past two decades, falling far behind
our international partners. Once the world's leader, the United
States now trails far behind other major nations in public
agricultural research investments. This decline in investments
means we are missing critical opportunities to capitalize on
the powerful potential of our world-class scientists to conduct
the type of high-risk, high-reward research necessary to meet
the overlapping and rapidly emerging challenges our farmers
face.
The United States, through USDA, can once again lead in
discovering and circulating solutions to global agriculture and
natural resource challenges through highly responsive,
transdisciplinary, and convergent research. That is why I am
pleased that President Biden and Secretary Vilsack are strongly
committed to supporting Federal agricultural research,
development, and deployment, which will define innovation for
decades to come.
I believe a few things are critical to ensuring REE's
mission stays on track: supporting work force development
efforts, deepening our existing partnerships to bridge the gap
between researchers and producers, and increasing equity in
research funding and program focus. The power of information
and research is undeniable, and REE is well positioned to
support farmers, ranchers, scientists, and academics alike in
tackling some of the most pressing issues facing our country.
In my time leading REE and in my 20 years of Federal
service I have had the opportunity to travel across the country
and meet with many of the people you serve. I have visited
States in every region of the country and many of your
districts, meeting with the people you represent. They are
optimistic about the future of agriculture, and so am I.
President Biden, Secretary Vilsack, and REE are poised to
catalyze food systems transformations, and we can meet and
expand our commitment to farmers and ranchers as they work to
feed the world, and I look forward to working with the
Committee to support this mission. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Jacobs-Young can be found on
page 46 in the appendix.]
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you so very much.
First of all, let me just say we all know that our farmers
are facing unprecedented challenges. We have the climate crisis
right in our face. We have market volatility. We have emerging
diseases that you were talking about, supply chain disruptions.
I mean, there is so much coming at our farmers and ranchers.
The research that is done at USDA and the data that is
collected is really critical.
When we look at the next farm bill, how can we strengthen
the USDA's research extension education programs to better meet
the challenges that farmers and ranchers are facing? Let me
just say, when you talk about the numbers and how our
investments have gone down and other countries are going up,
that is something we should all be very concerned about as we
look at our future.
Talk more specifically about what we should be doing to
strengthen these efforts.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Thank you, Chairwoman Stabenow, for that
question. We have talked about investments in ag research, and
we know that there are some countries, like Brazil, who are
competitors, global competitors. We lose an opportunity to be
competitive if we continue in this trajectory.
The second topic I would like to focus on is ag
infrastructure. When we think about the work force that we have
across the country, both internal to USDA and the Agriculture
Research Service and with our land-grant university partners,
we know that many of the scientists that support our industry
are working in crumbling facilities. In USDA's Agriculture
Research Service, which I have the most latest experience with,
the average age of our buildings is 47 years old.
In order to attract the best and the brightest, which is my
third point, our next generation of agriculture professionals
is critical. Today, in REE, 20 percent of our work force are
eligible to retire. In three years, that becomes 33 percent.
That is one-third of our work force is eligible to retire. It
has been very helpful to have unprecedented investments in the
next generation of agricultural professionals.
President Biden and Secretary Vilsack recently announced a
NEXTGEN program, From Learning to Leading, which is an
unprecedented, $250 million investment in encouraging and
attracting students from underrepresented communities to the
agriculture profession. The flexibility that that gives us, the
infrastructure that we need for our best and the brightest, and
investments in ag research are things that I know that this
Committee also believes in very strongly.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Great. Thank you very much. I
mentioned in my opening that we have secured $185 million in
the last farm bill for the Foundation for Food and Agricultural
Research, or FFAR, as we call it. This is actually something
that Senator Roberts and I originally created in the 2014 Farm
Bill as a public-private effort, as we do public-private
research in health care. We have not done that in the past on
agriculture. This foundation has been doing that, and I
appreciate 341 grants to date, including a really important one
that Michigan State did on pest management for our cherry
growers.
Could you talk a little bit more about how FFAR's unique
model of leveraging public and private funds is something that
is helpful in this arena?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Yes. I have been a part of FFAR. I have
been an ex officio board member since the inception. I was
fortunate enough to call some of the original members who
served on the board. I remember the spreadsheet with all the
names that had been suggested for the board. I have been
working very closely with the organization over the past couple
of years, and as Under Secretary, working to partner with FFAR
whenever possible to benefit on their convening power, their
opportunities to bridge the gap between public and private
organizations. Working with the new director, Dr. Saharah Moon,
and just really continuing to bring strength to strength from
my two organizations.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you. Just quickly in closing, we
now have been reemphasizing, or strengthening the focus on
urban agriculture, which is creating jobs in our urban areas,
and it is really a wonderful bridge between urban and rural. We
have a new office, as you know, set up, and so on.
I wonder if you might speak a little bit about how we could
improve the ability to support our urban producers and develop
innovative technology for local food systems.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Yes. Absolutely. One of the things that I
am very excited about is our recent announcement about
Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, and looking
at the array of the 45 projects, they span the spectrum.
Because urban agriculture is agriculture, and so really trying
to encourage more people to enter into that profession. There
is a project that encourages farmers in aquaculture, for
example. Using our community technical assistance partners to
really reach out to some of those communities to help them
enter into areas like urban agriculture.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much. Senator Boozman.
Senator Boozman. Thank you, Madam Chair, and Dr. Jacobs-
Young, thank you again for being here. I continue to hear
really good things about the work that you are doing, and we
are grateful, grateful for your service.
I understand you recently met with a group of rice
researchers from Arkansas. I appreciate you taking that
meeting, and I think that they felt like it was very
productive, and we appreciate you listening to their concerns.
The 2018 Farm Bill established the Agriculture Advanced
Research and Development Authority. Though the authority itself
will be revisited in farm bill discussions, the program has
vast support across the stakeholder community. The last
appropriations bill provided startup funding for staff hires
and a mandate to complete a strategic plan. Can you tell us the
status of how that is going and talk about when you plan to
submit the strategic plan to Congress?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Senator Boozman, thank you for that
question. This is a very complex topic, and just to be clear,
the opportunity to fund high-risk, transformative research is
something that we are all very, very excited about. In fact, as
ARS administrator for eight years, we have been trying to
integrate innovation into the DNA of who we are. We are very
excited about this concept, to follow in the footsteps of some
of our Federal partners like the DARPA organization.
On the other hand, we recognize that DARPA has a budget of
$3.85 billion, and so to be truly impactful we recognize we
need the resources to scale the types of projects that we all
envisioned would happen with AGARDA.
With the $1 million, we have partnered with FFAR, and we
are engaging in a series of formal conversations. We have
received a lot of feedback from stakeholders. We are going to
engage in formal conversations to get their feedback on the
direction for AGARDA when properly resourced.
We have a plan in clearance. I just want to be transparent.
It is an implementation plan on what was possible if AGARDA is
funded at the authorized $50 million level, and we expect to
release that plan to you all and publicly in the first quarter
of next year.
Senator Boozman. Good. Certainly that would be very
helpful. You have to have a plan before you can get
implemented. You need to be nice to this guy, the Ranking
Member on Ag Appropriations, as we go forward.
Following today's hearing, myself and the Chairwoman are
eager to begin our work to develop the research title for the
next farm bill. Dr. Jacobs-Young, in your role as Under
Secretary will you commit to provide the Committee with the
technical assistance when asked, and to prioritize the
effective implementation of programs authorized by the next
farm bill?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. We would be so happy to do so. We are on
standby and ready for your call.
Senator Boozman. Very good. Cannot ask for anything more
than that. That is great.
Can you just speak again, very quickly, about the
importance of the USDA research in developing new tools and how
are you, as the Under Secretary, furthering the goals of trying
to get more tools in the toolbox?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Right. Absolutely. When we think about
what we heard when we engage with stakeholders, they need more
technical assistance, they need more boots on the ground, and
they need more data. What we found is that when we partner with
technical cooperators, when we partner with extension service,
those people who are on the ground every day, the point of our
research is not to stay in the file cabinets. It is to get it
out into the hands of the people that need it.
We have been partnering with a number of the programs that
have been put in place at USDA to disseminate the information.
For example, the Climate Hubs, which were created to take the
thousands of peer-reviewed papers we do a year on climate
science--that is just in USDA-but a producer here, she cannot
stand in their field and read our papers, you know, as grand as
they are. We implemented the Climate Hubs to take that
information, to translate it into nuggets that producers can
use, and more importantly, bringing producers in at the
beginning of some of our research projects.
I think it is just very, very important that we continue to
up our game in terms of working hand-in-hand with the producers
and meeting them where they are.
Senator Boozman. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much. Senator Smith.
Senator Smith. Thank you, Madam Chair, Ranking Member, and
thank you very much, Under Secretary, for joining us today.
I want to talk a little bit about research into food. The
USDA research into food for humans centers on safety but also
on strategies for increasing productivity and sustainability
and quality, and that is really important. The USDA has also
started to advance some educational programs and resources
promoting indigenous food sovereignty, which I think is very
important, and I appreciate your attention to that issue as
well.
One area of research that is very important, but I think
gets less attention, is NIFA's support for research and
education to help Americans make informed food choices. On
NIFA's website there are a variety of initiatives, including
programs to help folks make good choices about food, resources
to help individuals living with diabetes make good nutritional
choices, those kinds of strategies.
These initiatives go directly to the relationship between
food and health, and touch on how improved nutrition is one of
the most powerful tools we have to improve health outcomes,
especially for chronic health conditions that are so harmful to
people and also cost the United States billions of dollars in
health care costs.
Could you talk about what more we need to do in the farm
bill to support USDA's research and education into healthy food
and that connection between food and health?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Senator Smith, this is one of my
passionate priorities as Under Secretary. I am very, very
committed to this topic. Yesterday, Secretary Vilsack and I
both announced ASCEND, which is the Agricultural Scientific
Center of Excellence for Nutrition and Diet, in support of
President Biden's Cancer Moonshot 2.0, in response to the White
House Conference on Hunger and the strategies that we are
working to meet.
We recognize that in the United States almost 60 percent of
us deal with at least one chronic condition. I could probably
raise my hand three or four times when we ask those questions.
We know that there are a lot of things outside of our control,
especially when we deal with cancer, but food is not one of
them.
We have the power to bring together the right people at the
right time to talk about what needs to happen in order to
translate, once again, the research and the data into usable
information for Americans, to improve the quality of life, and
reduce their risk of chronic disease and cancer.
We have initiatives called Precision Nutrition. Each one of
us in this room belongs to a subpopulation, and one size does
not fit all of us. We want to be more targeted in the guidance
we provide to Americans on how to eat for a healthy, high-
quality life.
I shared, and Secretary Vilsack shared yesterday, that many
of our family members have died before age 60, mine between 50
and 55, my sister, just last year, at age 50. We can do better.
The pandemic elucidated for us how vulnerable we are when we
carry these obesity-related, chronic diseases like diabetes,
hypertension, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease.
Yes, my answer is yes. We are all over it. We currently
invest about $180 million in nutrition, and how do we bring
that power with the American Heart Association, the Cancer
Associations, with our producers. You know, so how can we use
our convening power to bring people together to solve some of
these problems.
Senator Smith. Thank you. I can hear the strength of your
passion for this and I believe that this is such an important
area for us, an area where there is a lot more work to do. As
my good friend, Senator Booker, says, this is a civil rights
issue, and it is also an issue of how you save billions of
dollars in health care cost, while you are also simultaneously
improving people's lives. I think this is a big opportunity for
us as we think about resource allocation and prioritizing in
the farm bill.
I just have a minute left and I want to ask you a similar
question about the role the USDA can play in research
understanding the impacts of market consolidation and
concentration, another area that I think affects the lives of
farmers and research and also consumers, as we see increased
consolidation. This Committee has talked a lot about that. Do
you see this as an area where we would benefit from additional
research?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Absolutely. Currently the Economic
Research Service is right in the middle of all of these
conversations about the impact of consolidation on American
agriculture. It is the impetus behind a number of our
initiatives that are trying to build local and regional
approaches to many of the challenges that we face, because we
recognize how vulnerable we are when we do not have a resilient
food system.
The consolidation is an issue and we are working toward
making sure that we, for example, increase meat and poultry
processing at local and regional levels, being able to help
those producers have economic opportunities and have a little
bit more control over their vitality.
Yes, absolutely, Economic Research Service is right in the
middle of those conversations.
Senator Smith. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much. Important
questions. Senator Hoeven.
Senator Hoeven. Thank you. Thank you, Under Secretary, for
being here today, and thanks to both the Chairman and Ranking
Member for holding this hearing. Ag research is so incredibly
important. Growing up in western North Dakota I can remember
there were just a few crops we could grow very well on dry land
farming, and now the diversity in terms of the crop out there
is amazing and is a credit to ARS and to NIFA and the great
research done not only at USDA but at our land-grant
universities. It is just unbelievable in terms of productivity
and disease resistance, and it continues.
This is such an important area, and one of the things that
we are really pushing for now is precision agriculture. We have
started a concept at North Dakota State University called Grand
Farm, and it is actually a public-private partnership where
they have actually set up a cooperative agreement with USDA,
with ARS specifically, to do research on precision ag, and they
have acquired land. The theory, actually, is that they are
going to have a fully automated farm, you know, self-propelled
vehicles and the whole nine yards. Now it will not be, just
like unmanned aircraft are not unmanned, right. There is a
pilot. He is just on the ground, not in the aircraft. It
involves all these things.
First I want to invite you to come out and see it. As
Senator Smith will tell you, we have lovely winters in North
Dakota and Minnesota, great Christmas time, white Christmas,
you know, but certainly you could come in the summer or spring
if you would, but we would love to invite you to come see it.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Well, I will share with you that I have
been to North Dakota in the summer and it was 104 degrees.
[Laughter.]
Dr. Jacobs-Young. I am not sure what is the best time of
year to go to North Dakota, Senator Hoeven.
Absolutely. You know, ag is high tech. When you talk to
most Americans they have no idea how high tech agriculture is.
Once again talking about infrastructure, those things are only
possible if you have broadband access, if you have smart young
people. I am not saying us old folks cannot do it, but a lot of
young people who understand biology and computers systems and
informatics, who can come in and help us build AI systems,
machine learning. Then we need traditional breeders who can
breed plants that can be mechanically harvested. It is a full
spectrum of needs.
Precision agriculture, once again, relies on data. We
cannot do it without data. Where do we store that data? How do
we analyze it? We also need high-tech IT infrastructure,
looking at high-performance computing, looking at cloud
storage, and once again, a cadre of people who know how to use
those systems to be able to give us the answers we need.
I would be more than happy to come and tour the site. I
would love to be able to visit, to see it in action, especially
since you are partnering with ARS.
Senator Hoeven. Well, I appreciate it, and these
cooperative agreements are a great way to do more of what you
just described, and I think you are right on there.
The only thing I would not agree with, with you said ``us
old people,'' if you are talking about me and Boozman, us old
people would apply. In your case, that does not apply at all.
Then the other thing is, just in the remaining time here,
touch on, in terms of ARS and NIFA, how you see the two working
together, coordinating. As we go into this next farm bill, what
are your priorities both for ARS and NIFA, and what do you see
as the most effective thing we can do to enhance? I mean, I
think they're already great programs, but how do we improve
them in this next farm bill?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. I think the opportunity to have those
conversations about like how are things working, whether there
are some technical fixes, all those things that we are poised
to comment on. Then there is this opportunity--I think I am one
of the few people who have had an opportunity to work in both
ARS and NIFA, and actually head both agencies. There are only
two agencies in REE that I have not been a member of so I may
do an internship in either NASS or ERS.
I have the benefit of seeing the high-level opportunities
to connect more of the dots. I think what you have done in
terms of your support for us is very important, and we need to
work with you as we capitalize on those investments--
infrastructure, increased agricultural research investment, and
the next generation of agriculture professionals.
Senator Hoeven. Great. Again, thanks for your work. I
really appreciate it, and for being here today.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thanks very much. Senator Booker, who
chairs our subcommittee who oversees research as well as
nutrition.
Senator Booker. Thank you, and I am happy to speak for the
young people on this Committee.
[Laughter.]
Senator Booker. Senator Grassley and I are the youngest of
spirit here, I think. I just want that for the record.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. I am not going to live that down.
Senator Booker. Under Secretary, I have one judgment real
quickly. You clearly went to the second-best North Carolina
school, not North Carolina Central, which is my dad's
university. I assume you just could not get into North Carolina
Central.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Yes. You got me there.
Senator Booker. Okay. Good. Good.
We have a crisis in American farming. It is really
stunning. The number of small farmers that are losing their
farms is dramatic. My colleagues mentioned about the corporate
concentration. I visited farmers in the Midwest, saw their
deeds to the land from like four generations ago in the
Homestead Act, and yet the economics just do not work for them
like it did for those four generations previously. You are
seeing these big market forces that are causing corporate
concentration, causing a level of pain in the Midwest, in farm
countries, rural areas. I mean, the suicide rate for
independent family farmers is three times higher than
Americans. This should be a national crisis, yet we are doing
things that are aiding and abetting the massive concentration
of farms.
I am just wondering, from a research challenge, to begin to
lay plain this generational shifting from independent family
farmers to massive, multinational corporations and what the
real effect is on our culture, on our society, and even for
farm workers, consumers, and more. Is there something you can
give me of hope that we are trying to do things that could lay
plain the true cost of all this?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Most of our focus is on small to midsized
farms. Most of our research, most of our programs are focused
on small to midsized farms. Really the Beginning Farmers and
Ranchers Development Program that I mentioned, we just
announced $24 million in a grant to technical operators on the
ground, going to those farms, going to try to help them with
technical assistance around land access, market planning,
entrepreneurship, and how do we support those farmers?
Taking about four steps back, if those producers cannot
make a living on those farms, if they cannot have rural
communities where they can raise a family, where they can
thrive, we are going to be in a world of hurt, because I think
it is about two percent or less of Americans are involved in
growing the food that we eat. If we cannot find a way to make
those farmers successful and be vital, let us just say it is a
high priority for us. We are investing a lot of research and
really trying to be able to respond to how do we reduce inputs,
how do we increase the economic advantages, how do we do things
like value-added products?
Senator Booker. I agree, and so as we look to the next farm
bill I hope we can really invest in research to provide those
farmers with scale-appropriate innovations and the tools they
need.
On a related issue to this to me is the fact that we are
not aligning our subsidies with the best return for the
consumer because we are not taking into effect all the negative
externalities toward what we are doing. For example, only two
percent of our ag subsidies are going to the foods that other
parts of government tell us we should eat the most of--fruits
and vegetables. These are actually called specialty products
but yet most of our nutritionists are telling us that should be
the core of our diets.
More than that, the kind of farming we are investing in has
a tremendous amount of these negative or externalities. This is
not a reflection of true market forces because we are, as a
government, interrupting. So these negatives are substantial
greenhouse gas emissions, pollutions of lakes and rivers and
oceans as these chemicals are flowing into them, the depletion
of our soil health, which is tragic in and of itself but also
fails to deal with flooding and this contributes to the
flooding we see in a lot of our communities as well as failure
to sequester carbon, a massive loss of biodiversity around our
country.
These are the true costs that are not being incorporated
into what we are doing, not to mention the fact that we are
making incredibly cheap the foods that we are telling people
not to eat. My kids in Newark walk into a corner grocery store
and a Twinkie product is so much cheaper than an apple because
all of our billions of dollars of subsidies go to everything in
the Twinkie product and nothing to healthy food. Then our
taxpayers pay twice by paying for the Medicaid-Medicare cost
explosion of diet-related diseases because we, as a country,
have decided we are going to make cheap and easy, available
foods, empty nutrition, and the like.
I just think there should be research into the massive
explosion of costs that are true costs to the foods we are
eating and subsidizing, to the point now, in America, that 1
out of 3 of our government dollars is going to health care, and
almost 1 out of 5 of our dollars in our entire economy is going
to health care, and 80 percent of it is preventable diseases,
most of which is related to the foods that we are subsidizing.
That is the insanity that I think we are in. We are a frog in
boiling water right now as a country. If diabetes, strokes,
heart disease, even what people call Type 3 diabetes, which is
Alzheimer's, keeps going up at the same rate, in the next 25
years it will not be 1 out of 3 government dollars going to
health care. It will be one out of two government dollars.
You could be the canary in the coal mine by screaming right
now with the right research to expose, I think, more of the
truth of how we are digging our own grave. I am not being
metaphorical here with the number of people that are dying
based upon the way we have designed our food system.
Could you comment on that, and I am out of time, but if you
would just give me a quick note.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Senator Booker, you dropped a lot there,
and is it possible for me and my team to followup with you,
maybe sit down----
Senator Booker. Yes, please, and with that I will surrender
the time.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much. Important
questions. Senator Ernst.
Senator Ernst. Thank you, Madam Chair, and as a proud
Cyclone alum, I am going to attest that the best land-grant
university actually comes from Ames, Iowa. I think all of us
have competing interests, but all working together in that same
wonderful system.
Certainly the research title of the farm bill enables a lot
of really important relationships and partnerships with our
land-grant universities to dig into that ag research extension
and education. There are a number of programs that I have
supported here from the Senate. The Farm and Ranch Stress
Assistance Network, Agriculture Advanced Research and
Development Authority, and as you have mentioned many times,
the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. I really
appreciate those programs and what they are doing for our
Iowans and others across the country. Again, thank you, Dr.
Jacobs-Young, for being here with us today and sharing your
expertise.
The ag sector has come under a lot of increasing
cyberattacks, and this is threatening the livelihood of our
farmers and then, in turn, of course, is threatening our
Nation's food chain. Of course, there are a number of us, we
work to combat the increasing cybersecurity threats and we do
that especially as we look at our adversaries around the globe.
What role would you see for the university agricultural
systems in this particular effort, and of course, thereby
embedding research, education, and outreach activities into
this? Again, a very important topic and one that we have not
spent as much time on.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Thank you, Senator. First, raising the
awareness about the need for ag cybersecurity. You know, in the
Agricultural Research Service we do a lot of IP-related
research--vaccine development, et cetera, et cetera. We are
constantly protecting our systems from intrusion. Which is
interesting because ultimately our goal is to make all of it
public, but when we are ready to make it public.
I think that the need to raise awareness about the need for
the cybersecurity and then training a generation of
professionals who can help us in this space, I think that is
going to be critically important. We are partnering with Iowa
State University, with their High-Performance Computing
Network. Our first was built right there at the NADC on the
Iowa State University Campus, so we are already partnering with
Iowa State.
Once again, training people who can help us. I will add
that we also retrain some of our existing employees. We offer
trainings all year to try to get people up to speed in areas
like high-performance computing, AI, cybersecurity.
I look forward to working with you, Senator Ernst. If there
is something that we can do in partnership with your office, we
are just happy to do that.
Senator Ernst. That is wonderful. Then are there other
agencies that you work with as well in this area that could be
good partners and relationships that we should be developing?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. In agriculture we have something called
the Five I's, which is the five international countries working
with our intelligence communities. I am happy to share more
about that.
Senator Ernst. Wonderful. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Then, as well, when you look at the research title and
addressing the important issue of data-driven research around
carbon--and that is something that a few members have already
brought up--what can be done to help our farmers and producers
make the best decisions for their operations around the issue
of carbon? Because I travel across the State of Iowa doing what
is known as the Full Grassley. We visit all 99 counties every
single year. A lot of our farmers have expressed interest and
want to be engaged in, whether it is carbon capture or other.
How can we get that information out to them?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Stressing the importance of having the
producers engaged, right, from the beginning, early and often,
communicating. I do not know if I want to do the whole Grassley
tour, but I think it is critically important to get out there--
I have been on farms--as well as talking to our producers about
what is it they need, and how can we deliver it in a way that
it will be receptive, because adoption is part of the issue
that we have. We have developed wonderful technologies and
innovations and tools and then we struggle with adoption.
I am thinking about tools like GRACEnet. You know, it is
one of the tools that a farmer can use to really look at their
emissions from their crops and grazed soils under current and
future management practices. We have tools like COMET that we
can look at reductions and sequestration and conservation. Then
we have like Dairy JAM.
We are taking a lot of this science and data, and what we
want to be able to do, I want to pull out one or two of my
cellphones, we want to produce a him or her to be able to stand
with their cellphone and be able to access the tools. They do
not need to know what is working behind it. They just need to
know how to put the proper variables in or get the answers that
they seek.
A full-time job is translating the science into digestible
nuggets in a way that people can receive it.
Senator Ernst. Yes, absolutely. It is just so important
that we take all of this incredible information, get it right
out there to that end user. Thanks so much. We really
appreciate it. Thank you, Chair.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much. Senator Bennet.
Senator Bennet. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for
holding this hearing. Madam Secretary, thank you very much for
being here.
In the 2018 Farm Bill this Committee authorized the
Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority
(AGARDA). I was happy to hear the Ranking Member ask about
this. There is bipartisan support for this pilot program which
was modeled after the success of ARPA-E at the Department of
Energy and DARPA at the Department of Defense, meant to address
the greatest threats to American agriculture through high-risk,
high-reward research that drives innovation.
You mentioned in your conversation with the Ranking Member
that you are working on a strategic implementation plan, which
is an important step, but I hope we can see that released as
soon as possible.
I was curious whether you had made progress on hiring a
director or staff to help launch the program itself. Aside from
funding what are the biggest challenges to implementing the
program? Are there changes we need to think about in the
upcoming farm bill to make it more effective or easier to
implement or more relevant to the issues facing producers
today?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. With the $1 million investment that we
received in Fiscal Year 2022, it is complicated to be able to
support a Federal employee with short-term funding. We looked
over at DARPA, ARPA-E, ARPA-H, and they were somewhere between
GS-15s and senior executives. We are talking about $165,000 to
$200,000 base salary without benefits. It would be difficult to
make that type of commitment to a Federal employee without
long-term committed resources.
We partner with the Foundation for Food and Ag Research so
that we did not have to use the resources that we could use
working with stakeholders and engagement to try to create a
position inside of USDA. Working with the foundation that was
created to support the Department. That is the strategy that we
have taken thus far, and once we have an opportunity to talk
with the stakeholders about what they would love to see, then I
think we have an opportunity to be able to see what is possible
internal to the Federal Government.
Senator Bennet. Do you have a timeline for when you are
trying to bring somebody aboard?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Currently there are no plans to bring a
permanent Federal employee aboard.
Senator Bennet. Okay.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. We do not have the committed resources.
Senator Bennet. Okay. I would like to followup with your
staff if that is okay, to understand that better and make sure
that what we were trying to achieve here is actually being
carried out by the Administration. If we could work with you I
would appreciate that.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Senator Bennet, as I shared before, it is
a matter of scale, and the scale is when you look at what the
program was authorized, at $50 million. Being able to plan for
a $50 million program is something that we are excited about.
However, we have to have the resources.
Senator Bennet. Okay. I will followup, if that is okay.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Okay. Thank you.
Senator Bennet. I know you know that Colorado, and the
American West for that matter, is being ravaged by wildfires.
We have been able, with the leadership here, to create an
unprecedented commitment of billions of dollars both in the
Infrastructure Law and in the Inflation Reduction Act, to begin
to address the forests that have been neglected so badly by our
Federal Government over years. The effects of climate change
have just been staggering.
I wonder whether you have some examples of ongoing research
to support wildfire prevention and mitigation, and what role
research can play in advancing our understanding of our
ecosystem's vulnerability to fires, to extreme weather, and to
other similar threats.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Thank you for your question, Senator
Bennet. This is an example of where we play a supportive role
to our Federal partners, and that is the Forest Service
research entity and our Forest Service colleagues. I know that
in ARS we have done a lot of studies around things like sage
grass and some of the other things that might be an issue. We
have looked at what do we do with, for example, smoke-tainted
grapes. How do we not lose that agricultural production? You
know, what are the options?
Really working with our Forest Service colleagues is an
example of where we can come together there.
Senator Bennet. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much. Senator Hyde-
Smith.
Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you, Madam Chairman, and thank
you for being here today. You have really presented yourself
extremely well. Very impressive.
I want to talk about rural veterinary medicine. In
Mississippi, we have a tremendous shortage, and across the
country, that threatens the long-term viability of our
livestock industries. We have counties in Mississippi that do
not even have a large-animal veterinarian, and that is really
what we are hearing across the entire country. As you well
know, our food security and economic security are put at risk
without sufficient veterinary oversight to ensure the health of
animals in the food supply chain, and the proper Federal
inspection of meat, poultry, and catfish processing.
The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, NIFA,
currently administers the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment
Program to alleviate rural veterinary shortages by providing
money toward educational loans to veterinarians who agree to
serve in rural shortage areas. There is just so much money to
be made in small animals that it is difficult to lure them into
large animals. While many of these rural veterinarians serve in
private practice, some undertake Federal roles such as USDA
Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors.
Despite the successes of this program there are still
critical shortages across rural America. One of the reasons for
this, that I think has been identified, is that these awards
from NIFA are subject to a Federal withholding tax, meaning
that 37 percent of the dollars appropriated to this program go
right back to the Treasury, instead of the educational debt for
the rural veterinarians. Without this tax we could better
address these shortage issues by helping more veterinarians
practice where it is desperately needed.
What are your views on the veterinary shortages and how
open are you to additional conversations on how we can get more
veterinarians into rural America, and how will you ensure NIFA
continues to successfully administer this program, and what do
you think about alleviating those taxes?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Senator Hyde-Smith, it is interesting
because every young person I talk to is interested in animal
science. I beg them. I literally beg and plead with them to
look at large animals. What I notice when I toured the
veterinary school at Mississippi State University, primarily
female.
Senator Hyde-Smith. Yes.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Primarily female vet students.
Senator Hyde-Smith. I have got one on my staff right here
who just graduated.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. The systems are great. Programs like the
NIFA-led program are great. We have also recognized an
imperative to diversify our veterinary programs. I talked with
some of the students at President Nave's university, at Alcorn.
The students are interested in animal science and veterinary
science. How do we encourage them and bridge a way for them to
go into vet programs?
Something that we talk about a lot in terms of planning are
how we can use some of these unprecedented investments in the
next generation of ag professionals to train targeted areas,
like veterinarians, for rural communities, for large animal
science. I think you are right. This is an important issue. I
would love to have an opportunity to talk more, maybe hear some
of your thoughts on what you have learned in your State.
I have always been excited about the repayment program, the
loan incentive program that NIFA led. I tried to get my
daughter to go into veterinary services but she fought against
me, because I thought, hey, we can send you to a rural area and
you can get some of that paid back.
Yes, this is very important. ARS hires a lot of
veterinarians, a lot of veterinarians. What I will tell you,
where we have seen the most glaring shortage is as we move into
our BSL-3 and BSL-4 facilities, where we are dealing with
diseases like African swine fever, classical swine fever, avian
influenza, we need trained veterinarians, Ph.D.s, DVM Ph.D.s
who can help us in those spaces. We have a shortage of those
people. Then we have to compete with everybody else for the
same students. I would love to have an opportunity to talk with
you about that.
Now in terms of the withholding, I would need a whole lot
more information on that piece, but I am happy to talk with
your office to see what is possible.
Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you for your interest because it
is a critical shortage and we are losing animals because we
just have no one to come to the farm in time to save them.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
I believe Senator Tuberville is next.
Senator Tuberville. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for
having this discussion today. My former employee was one of the
big land-grant universities, earliest ever, Auburn University,
and also in Alabama we have Tuskegee University and Alabama
A&M. Thank you for your hard work and looking out for our land-
grant universities.
The farm bill is very, very important to my State, and
really all the States, and for all the people that live in this
country. I am real concerned about our family farms, as Senator
Booker was talking about earlier. It is important we understand
what they go through and the problems that they are having. You
know, the average U.S. farmer is 58 years old. We have very few
young people getting into it. Why would they do it when they
cannot make any money doing it? We have got problems from fuel
prices, and the EPA looking over their shoulder, and making it
tougher every day. Things are getting tougher, you know, doing
away with fossil fuels. There is so much unknown that our
farmers are getting ready to face.
One thing I wanted to ask you about is the research. What
are we doing through your department in the ownership of our
land to foreign countries? China, for instance, in the last 12
years, has gone from 10,000 acres to 360,000 acres of farmland
in our country that they are purchasing. I can understand why a
lot of our farmers are selling out. In the South, we are
selling out--some of the farmers are selling out because of
people moving to the South, you know, housing areas, home
building, all those things, and they can make money doing it.
We have to save our family farms, but for some reason we are
selling more and more land to foreign entities. Are we doing
any research into that?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. That is a good question, sir, and I would
love to followup with the Economic Research Service and Office
of the Chief Economist to determine if we do have some research
in that space.
I would share with you that we are doing everything in our
power to be able to help those farmers and producers be
successful on their land, and so that has been a huge focus
area for us in the research areas. We talked about the
Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. You know, a
large portion of our military come from rural communities. A
number of them come back to the country and they are interested
in farming and returning to the land. How do we help those
people integrate back into the land, and what services can we
provide to help them be successful? Investments in rural
communities--how can we create communities where people want to
live, where they can educate their children, where they can
make a living?
The Economic Research Service has shared with us that over
85 percent of farmers do not make their primary living on the
farm. I cannot imagine that. We have a lot of work to do in
this space to help those producers be economically viable.
Senator Tuberville. Yes. I know being at an ag school at
Auburn we are having a lot of interest in it, but we have
interest in more things like vet school, other than actually
getting into the farming business, and we have to do something
about it. We are not going to need a farm bill if we do not.
Again, we have foreign entities coming in. Bill Gates is the
largest farmland owner in the country, hundreds of thousands of
acres. He owns most of the warehousing seeds in the country.
For one person to do that there has got to be some kind of
reason for that happening.
I just hope that we would keep our farmers in our prayers.
Some of my best friends are in farming and they are just about
to get out of it. If we do not come up with some answers for
the cost and the availability of being able to do things
easier, finding people to work on our farms, which right now is
tough. I know people that own dealerships in terms of selling
farm equipment. The supply chain is bad and getting worse.
You have got your hands full, and we are going to have our
hands full putting this farm bill together to make sure our
farmers are able to make it through the next few years, because
I think the next few years are going to be telling of where are
farmers go and where our farming ends up, whether it is going
to be foreign land or whether it is going to be domestic
farmers.
Thanks for your help. Thanks for your work.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. I just want to quickly share. This is
where innovation comes in. We have to be able to automate some
of the processes. We have to do things like mechanical
harvesting. We have to be able to reduce the inputs by finding
alternatives.
We just recently broke ground on a brand-new facility on
Auburn University campus, for the ARS scientists. We are just
very excited about some of the help we are making in this
space. We know how important research is to the region, and so
we are just happy to be in partnership with Auburn and look
forward to working with you.
Senator Tuberville. Well, thank you. The one thing that I
am very concerned about in that area of innovation is our
farmers are wondering about the equipment they are going to be
using. Is it going to be EV equipment? Right now they burn
diesel. They burn gas. In the future is it going to be--I mean,
everything is up in the air. The cost is going to even get
higher. We cannot have our costs going up for our farmers.
Their margins are very small as they are.
We have a lot of decisions to make for our family farms.
Corporations will make it but the family farms are not going to
make it unless we go out on a limb for them in the future, to
make it easier and more profitable for them.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much. A lot of
important, serious issues for us coming together to support
farmers and ranchers and families. Senator Brown.
Senator Brown. Thank you, Madam Chair, and Madam Under
Secretary, nice to see you. I concur with my friend from
Alabama, though I would amend that. The threat of foreign land
ownership is real. The threat of consolidation and corporate
ownership is every bit as real or greater, what has happened to
farms in Ohio and Alabama and Indiana and Nebraska and Michigan
and Arkansas. I think we all know that.
I appreciate what you said about innovation and that
discussion back and forth. When you think about innovation in
agriculture you think from Henry Wallace to researchers at our
land-grant universities have made American farmers the most
productive in the world, and you know these numbers, Dr.
Jacobs-Young. Every dollar invested in ag research has a $20
return. Food security is national security, and agricultural
research is foundational to that.
China understands it. They have quintupled their public
investment in research, investing roughly double what the U.S.
does. In the U.S., as you know, public investment in ag
research has remained flat for five years. The Trump
administration showed no real interest in doing the kind of
research we should be doing.
A couple of questions about that. I assume you are
concerned about the U.S. lagging behind China, and now, as
well, Brazil when it comes to public investment in ag research?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. I am. I probably have said it ad nauseum
this morning. You know, I am concerned about the level of
investment, when we look at being on par with our scientific
colleagues here domestically and globally. When we look at some
of the investments in ag research, if we were on par--so we
share what you already shared and what I shared. If we could do
that with what we have, imagine what we could accomplish if we
were on par with our scientific colleagues, both here in the
U.S. and around the world.
Senator Brown. It means, Dr. Jacobs-Young, providing more
multiyear, mandatory funding. Correct?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. I will leave that to the decision of
Congress, but happy to help with technical assistance and
support.
Senator Brown. I get it. Well said.
Let me shift to the 1890s land-grant system of historically
Black universities. Nineteen universities, as you know,
including Central State University in my State, one of the
first and one of the best. The last farm bill established a
scholarship program for students at 1890 institutions who are
pursuing careers in agriculture and food sciences. What impact
has that had on the 1890s network's ability to attracts
students interested in careers in food and ag sciences? What
does it mean for work force development and diversity in
agriculture? If we are going to make the case that I know the
Chair wants to make and I want to make, and I think several
around this table I think in both parties want to make, we need
to know how you assess so far the success we have had there
from the last effort.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. I know that you are going to have a
witness on the next panel, Dr. Nave, who is right there where
the rubber meets the road and working with the students at the
1890 institutions.
I will tell you, from my perspective as Under Secretary and
as past administrator, how important it is for those types of
programs to help us get a diversity of students into our halls,
into our laboratories. When they have that type of support it
takes the stress off, to be able to encourage them.
It is one thing to attract students to the programs. It is
a whole different topic to retain. I think that those
scholarships, both the 1890s scholars, we look at the Thurgood
Marshall scholars, the HACU scholars, our 1994 scholars, all
those programs are critically important to support those
students to be able to know what is possible.
I will just share real quickly, I was with Dr. Nave and her
colleagues on the Council of 1890 Presidents when my
confirmation vote came in. It was not how I had planned it. I
had planned to be at home with my family, with the bubbly, just
waiting. I was in a hotel lobby----
Senator Brown. You pay attention to these confirmation
votes?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. I do. I watch them all.
Senator Brown. You could tell me the names of any, as all
nominees, anybody that voted no, you could tell me their names?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Yes, I can. Yes, I can.
Senator Brown. Never mind.
[Laughter.]
Dr. Jacobs-Young. I was with Dr. Nave and her colleagues at
the 1890 Council of Presidents, and we talked about what needs
to happen for us to make sure that we can provide a successful
trajectory for these students. I was on her campus talking to
her 1890s scholars. I have been to Prairie View A&M. I have
been to the FALCON conference, that is the First American Land-
grant Consortium, for our 1994s with our Native American
students. They need to see what is possible.
When I was at that hotel with Dr. Nave and her colleagues
there was a young man that walked up to me, and he said, ``I
heard you speak many years ago, several years ago, and I went
on to get a Ph.D. because I saw you.'' You know----
Senator Brown. Because he knows you have one.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Because I talked to them about what is
possible, the same thing I am doing at each one of these
campuses and in the caucuses I speak. Now to be honest, I do
not where I met him before. I do not know what talk it was,
what engagement it was. We do not often know what type of
impact we are having on people.
The 1890's scholars program and all the different scholars
programs are important because they provide an entry into
exposure. When we can get those students into our laboratories,
we provide them opportunities to get exposure to people doing
things that they did not even know was possible, then we will
have success. How do we measure that in totality I think is
your question, and that is something that we will have to sit
down and talk about.
Senator Brown. Because my time has expired I will be really
quick here, Madam Chair.
Retention is always harder than recruitment. Correct?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Yes.
Senator Brown. Okay. We need to get serious about what we
can do, what this Committee can do in the farm bill and beyond
on retention. We will come back to you with more about that.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Okay. Thank you.
Senator Brown. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. I could talk about this all day.
Chairwoman Stabenow. No, this is so important, so
important. Senator Fischer.
Senator Fischer. Thank you, Madam Chairman, and thank you,
Secretary, for being here today. I appreciate it. I love your
comments. I love your enthusiasm.
Madam Chair, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Vice
Chancellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural
Resources recently delivered testimony as part of USDA NIFA's
listening session on updating scientific priorities. I ask that
Vice Chancellor Mike Boehm's testimony be given consideration
and be included as part of the official hearing record.
Without objection, Madam Chair?
Chairwoman Stabenow. I am so sorry. Senator Brown is going
on about how great our witness is.
Senator Fischer. I know. We all are.
Chairwoman Stabenow. He was echoing what you were just
saying. Yes, without objection.
Senator Fischer. Thank you so much.
[The testimony can be found on page 79 in the appendix.]
Senator Fischer. Madam Secretary, a priority that we have
previously discussed is my support for USDA's co-located ARS
National Center for Resilience and Regenerative Precision
Agriculture, the National Center at the University of Nebraska-
Lincoln. I, along with Nebraska congressional delegation,
recently sent you a letter underscoring the delegation's
support for the National Center and our strong commitment to
secure Federal funding for this essential ARS research
facility.
Can you provide the Committee with an update and thoughts
on how the new National Center will serve as a critical
regional hub for collaboration and to identify and address
relevant scientific and research gaps across the USDA ARS
landscape, please?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. What has been very exciting is as we have
really emphasized the need for investments in infrastructure,
Congress has been very generous to us. We have received over $1
billion in investments for ARS facilities. The beauty of that
is we have been able to address seven facilities, co-located
facilities, on land-grant university campuses. We are in early
conversations--well, not so early--with the University of
Nebraska, and we have plans for what we will do when properly
resourced.
I support that co-location. My scientists are excited about
it. Ronnie Green, who is an alumni of the Agricultural Research
Service is excited about it. We just look forward to continuing
to work with our colleagues there in Nebraska to make it a
reality.
Senator Fischer. Thank you. I look forward to working with
you on that. Nebraska has a unique position just with our water
resources that we have and the possibility there with
innovation. I think the research would be extremely important
for food and our water resources, so thank you.
Our community colleges also play an important and
increasingly growing role in agriculture education and work
force training. For example, at Northeast Community College in
Norfolk, they have an associate's degree in precision
agriculture to train students on how to use, interpret, and
utilize precision agriculture technologies to improve
production. Northeast is also part of a multistate coalition of
community colleges that provide education, training, and
demonstrations to future farm producers. As part of this group
of community colleges, Northeast also has an MOU with USDA's
Natural Resource Conservation Service to provide training and
education on conservation.
Can you discuss the ways that USDA could better partner
with community colleges? Specifically, do you see a role for
community colleges like Northeast to help translate research
into technical training to help implement in that field?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. I do. I see a huge role for community
colleges.
I recently attended the FFA convention for the first time
ever. I do not know if anybody in this room has ever been to an
FFA conference.
Senator Fischer. Yes, ma'am.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Sixty-seven thousand kids and a lot of
blue corduroy jackets.
[Laughter.]
Dr. Jacobs-Young. What I noticed when I walked through the
exhibits is the prevalence of community and technical colleges,
and it was the first time I had seen such a huge presence. You
know, focusing on technical skills like welding. In fact, the
first vice president, the second vice president for FFA is a
welding student, and his goal is to open a welding business.
I recognize the importance of community colleges. We are
partnering with community and technical schools for meat and
poultry processing, for example. If we want to build local and
regional systems we need to have local and regional trained
employees. It has been a right partnership for the community
and technical colleges.
Every profession in agriculture does not require a four-
year degree, so we really want to make sure that we are
capitalizing on the strengths of all of the institutions that
serve us.
Senator Fischer. I would love to host you at the University
of Nebraska, but I would also like to get you a couple of hours
away from Lincoln to Northeast Community College and see the
really fabulous things they are doing there with precision
agriculture. It is a very exciting time, and it is a growing
program for them that reaches out into rural areas of the State
and the students they are able to connect with there, and keep
agriculture strong.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. I would love to do that. Remember, not in
the winter.
[Laughter.]
Senator Fischer. No. I am well aware of the charms of our
State, and I want you to have an enjoyable time. Thank you.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much, Senator. I should
also tell you, as someone who has been to multiple FFA State
conferences, I love FFA and 4-H, and I have lobbied for years
that in the summer the young people need to have t-shirts, not
navy blue corduroy jackets. Just another word for that.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Yes, it is hot.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Yes, exactly. Senator Braun.
Senator Braun. Thank you, Madam Chair, and good morning,
Madam Secretary. By the way, that FFA get-together happens in
the great city of Indianapolis each year.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Yes, it does.
Senator Braun. When those kids come to town, it is the most
peaceful get-together of a lot of folks in one place, and those
blue jackets are all over the place. I was there this summer.
When I came here four years ago I always try to look ahead.
I ran a company for 37 years, and if you did not have a good
business plan for the future you were always going to end up in
a cul-de-sac sooner or later.
I sit on the Budget and Appropriations Committees, and
everything we are talking about here today is in peril in the
long run if we do not get back to budgeting and appropriations
that are done the old-fashioned way, where you go through
regular order, where you actually use a budget committee. That
should be the most important committee in the U.S. Senate. It
is almost kind of attenuating into a useless appendage. I think
that puts it in peril. I am on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions. All the people that come there, to make sure there is
going to be R&D there for whatever you are interested in. You
do not do that by running down trillion-and-a-half-dollar
deficits. We have just kind of woven that into the landscape of
how this place works.
I do not want to depress the discussion here, but it is a
reality we have got to confront, and until we get that back
into place, which is not that difficult--a little bit of
political will, a little bit of discipline--some of the things
we are talking about here today, for farmers, or for all the
folks that are wrestling with hard-to-cure diseases are in that
same peril. Because the Federal Government should be the place
where you could always go. We should be investing more in that
stuff. To do that we have got to be spending less on some of
the things that create these chronic now annual deficits.
Earlier it was mentioned the difficulty of the hardest
occupation that I think God created--farming. It is the
ultimate small business--most are still small business
enterprises--fraught with financial risk. I got started back
when the farm crisis hit us nearly 40 years ago, and I remember
what that was about. That was about the biggest change in
farming that we had ever seen in modern times--160-acre farmers
had to all of a sudden become 1,000-acre farmers. Now that is a
small enterprise. The profit margin, in an absolute sense, has
not changed much from what it was then, and you have got all
that financial risk.
Really what we do in terms of making it easier for farmers
is so important, and Senator Tuberville drilled in on that.
I come from a State that has got one of the heaviest
concentrations in the poultry industry, and I think we lead in
ducks. We are really large in the turkey grow-out business. I
am from one of the two counties in the southern part of the
State where there is a lot of activity, and they have recently
had to contend with that added uncertainty, the highly
pathogenic avian influenza. When that hits, it is basically
very few options. You are depopulating farms. You sometimes
have to keep them depopulated for a long time. I work closely
with APHIS and our other State agencies to ensure that Hoosier
producers are receiving that kind of support, but I can tell
you, there is a lot of uncertainty on what is happening.
I want to just hear it from you, that not only for
poultry--I think the hog industry has got other issues. We have
the chronic wasting disease on our borders that impact the
recreational side of things. What is the USDA doing? How high a
priority is it? Can I tell Hoosier poultry farmers back home
that we are going to be putting more resources into something
that, when it hits us, it is devastating?
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Emergency preparedness is something that
is always top of mind, and as we look at farm animal diseases,
when we look at high-path avian influenza, our partnership with
APHIS is top notch. Surveillance is important, diagnostics. ARS
is often brought in to do the diagnostics and to help put
whatever mitigation program in place.
Avian influenza vaccines are being developed in Athens,
Georgia. We just cut the ribbon on a brand-new, $158-million
facility, BSL-3 facility, where we do all of our avian
research.
We can only be prepared because we have that capacity.
Working with APHIS and working with our State and local
leaders, we want to be able to come in and be very, very
responsive in terms of mitigating the impact. We cannot control
the pests and diseases, unfortunately, because they do not
respect boundaries, but we can be prepared when we are faced
with these.
Senator Braun. I think as we become more global in nature
it is going to be important that we pour more resources to it,
and again, do it in the context of trying to reform some things
on a broader scale. Thank you.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Thank you.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much. I believe we have
concluded our first panel. Thank you so much. We very much
appreciate all of your wonderful work and look forward to
continuing to work with you as we move forward on this
important title and others as well. Thank you so much.
Dr. Jacobs-Young. Thank you for having me.
Chairwoman Stabenow. We will now move to our second panel,
and we will ask our witnesses to come forward as Under
Secretary Jacobs-Young is leaving. Thank you again. We will ask
all of our witnesses to come forward and begin the second
panel.
[Pause.]
Chairwoman Stabenow. We appreciate all of you coming. As
usual, members are trying to be multiple places at once, so we
expect members to come back and join us during our second
panel. Welcome. Good to have you.
Terrific. Well, let me welcome everyone and I want to start
by introducing Dr. Rowntree. Dr. Jason Rowntree is a Professor
of Animal Science at Michigan State University where he holds
the Charles Stewart Mott Distinguished Professorship for
Sustainable Agriculture. Dr. Rowntree has led or been a co-
investigator on almost $28 million in funding, conducting much
of his work at Lake City AgBio Research Center and the Upper
Peninsula Research and Extension Center. In his work, Dr.
Rowntree engages directly with farmers to support ecological
improvements in grazing systems.
I want to thank you, Dr. Rowntree, for being here, and as a
twice alum from Michigan State I would say ``Go Green.''
Dr. Rowntree. Go White.
Chairwoman Stabenow. All right. There we go. We got it
down. That is great.
Our next witness is Dr. Felecia Nave, who has already been
introduced by Senator Hyde-Smith. Just as a reminder, Dr. Nave
serves as the President of Alcorn State University in Lorman,
Mississippi, and the Nation's oldest public historically Black
land-grant university. We are so pleased to have you with us.
I will next recognize Senator Braun, who will introduce our
third witness.
Senator Braun. Thank you, Madam Chair. The next witness is
Dr. Katy Martin Rainey, an Associate Professor of Agronomy at
Purdue University's College of Agriculture in West Lafayette,
Indiana. Dr. Rainey earned her bachelor's degree from the
University of Georgia and her doctorate from Cornell
University. She has been a soybean breeder since 2006, starting
at Virginia Tech before moving to Purdue.
Dr. Rainey is the recipient of the Purdue Faculty Scholar
Award and Director of the Purdue Soybean Center, and a co-
founder of Progeny Drone, Inc. She serves as the National
Genetic Resources and Advisory Council, the Foundation for Food
and Agriculture Research Crops of the Future Advisory Council,
and is involved with the leadership of the National Association
of Plant Breeders.
Dr. Rainey has received millions of dollars in funding from
soybean farmers and has taught plant breeding and genetics to
over 850 students.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much. Welcome. I will
turn now to Senator Bennet for our next introduction.
Senator Bennet. Thank you, Madam Chair and Ranking Member
Boozman. It is a great, great privilege to introduce a fellow
Coloradan, Steve Ela, as one of our witnesses this morning. Mr.
Ela is a fourth-generation grower. He manages Ela Family Farms,
extremely well, by the way, and Silver Spruce Orchards as well,
a 100-acre organic family farm in Hotchkiss, Colorado, that
grows cherries, peaches, plums, pears, apples, and tomatoes.
In 1994, Steve began the transition to organic and today
his farm is 100 percent certified organic.
Steve not only brings the Committee his experience as a
farmer and as a businessperson but is a leader in agriculture
policy. Steve graduated with a degree in biology and
environmental geology from Beloit College and a master's in
soil science with a minor in water resources from the
University of Minnesota. He served on the National Organic
Standards Board, including as president. He served with the
Organic Farming Research Foundation, the Orchard Pest and
Disease Management Conference, the Western Colorado
Horticultural Society, and the Colorado Agricultural
Commission.
His family's farm also partners with Colorado State
University to conduct on-farm research projects. Mr. Ela
commands a firm understanding of organic standards and the
organic food industry, rooted in years of experience running a
farm and working in farm policy.
I am extremely grateful to him for making the trip to
Washington to share his experience with the Committee as we
consider the 2023 Farm Bill, and thank you again, Mr. Ela, for
your testimony. I think I could speak for Steve to say to you,
Madam Chair, and the Ranking Member, that you are invited to
the North Fork Valley any time to see an incredible, thriving,
entrepreneurial, agricultural culture that has built a diverse
and strong economy over the last 20 years. Steve Ela has been a
huge part of that, so thank you.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Wonderful. We will take you up on it.
When you were listing everything that grows I was getting
hungry. Thank you so much. Welcome.
Last but certainly not least, I will turn to Senator
Boozman for our final witness.
Senator Boozman. Thank you, Madam Chair, and our final
witness is Dr. Deacue Fields. Dr. Fields is Vice President for
Agriculture at the University of Arkansas, a position he was
appointed to in July of this year. Dr. Fields has provided
extraordinary leadership for Arkansas agriculture. As Vice
President, he is responsible for leading the university
system's coordinated agriculture program including the
Cooperative Extension Service and the Agriculture Experiment
Station.
Dr. Fields has vast experience at several universities
which gives him unique insight on how to support research,
teaching, and extension work. Prior to his current role, Dr.
Fields served as Dean for the Dale Bumpers College of
Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences at the University of
Arkansas. For several years he was a faculty member at Auburn
University.
He received his bachelor's degree from Southern University
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, his master's from the University of
Missouri at Columbia, and a Ph.D. from Louisiana State
University, all in agricultural economics. He is married to
Dana Fields and they have three sons.
Dr. Fields, thank you for your time and for being here
today, and the excellent job that you are doing, not only at
the University of Arkansas but throughout the entire
educational system.
I yield back.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much. Well, we have a
distinguished panel and I will ask each of you for five minutes
of testimony. We welcome any other written materials that you
would like to give to the Committee.
We will start with Dr. Rowntree.
STATEMENT OF JASON ROWNTREE, Ph.D., CS MOTT CHAIR OF
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE; DIRECTOR, MSU CENTER FOR REGENERATIVE
AGRICULTURE; PROFESSOR, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, EAST
LANSING, MI
Dr. Rowntree. Chairwoman Stabenow, Ranking Member Boozman,
and distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for your
work and the opportunity to testify about the importance of
cooperative extension and agriculture research funding. My name
is Jason Rowntree, and I serve as the CS Mott Chair of
Sustainable Agriculture and the Co-Director for the Center of
Regenerative Agriculture at Michigan State University.
My research relies heavily on Federal agriculture research
funding. In fact, I have led or been a co-investigator on
research encompassing more than $27 million from the USDA
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Program (SARE),
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), and the
Foundation for the Future of Agriculture (FFAR). Most recently,
I pioneered a $19.2 million FFAR soil health grant entitled,
``Metrics, Management and Monitoring. An Investigation of
Pasture and Rangeland Soil Health and Its Drivers.''
The United States has the most efficient agricultural
system globally. Technological advancements and intensification
have enabled greater crop yields and improved animal
productivity. However, these intensive practices have come with
environmental costs such as greenhouse gas emissions, water
contamination, and the erosion of our most prized agricultural
resource--soil. Soil losses endanger agricultural resilience by
increasing drought vulnerability, reducing productivity, and
releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. These challenges,
coupled with global unrest and a growing population, places
immense pressure on our agriculture resilience. Today, now more
than ever before, domestic food security is inseparable from
national security, and our national security hinges on our
long-term climate security.
Investing in extension and agriculture research is a
powerful and straightforward way to ensure we develop
innovative solutions to these challenges. Further, we must
envision holistic solutions that are well-suited to address the
complexity of agriculture. In my experience, the philosophy of
regenerative agriculture is well-suited to this challenge.
At the MSU Center for Regenerative Agriculture, we define
regenerative agriculture along NRCS's five soil health
principles: keeping soils continuously covered, minimizing soil
disturbance, increasing biological diversity, keeping living
roots in the soil, and integrating livestock. While
implementation varies by farm, practices aligned with these
principles are associated with promising soil health and carbon
sequestration outcomes, and they are doing this while reducing
inputs and not sacrificing profitability.
Importantly, this movement is farmer and rancher led. Just
this week I watched a YouTube video of a farmer who is growing
200-bushel corn in western Kansas with no nitrogen or
phosphorus application. To me, this is the growing ``culture''
of agriculture. As these producers experiment and learn from
one another, there is a need for Extension to help
troubleshoot, educate, empower, and facilitate. Supporting and
expanding Extension in this way is crucial to the success of
regenerative agriculture as a climate solution.
Experimental and on-farm research is equally important to
this mission. Participatory research, where academics connect
with on-the-ground producers, is essential. The USDA SARE
Program is well-suited to this mission. However, there is a
large gap between the demand for these projects and available
funding. In my experience, only about 10 percent of farmer-and
academic-led sustainability grants are successfully funded,
while half the submissions were worthy of funding. Expanding
participatory research impact is also feasible for USDA NIFA
and FFAR.
Last, with the advent of natural capital markets, such as
soil carbon offsets, research is desperately needed to
facilitate the accurate and efficient quantification of
ecosystem services. The Natural Capital Project at Stanford
University indicate that the first law of a successful natural
capital market is that the transaction must yield the desired
effect. Essentially when a company purchases a CO2 offset,
there must be proof that the offset is grounded in real soil
carbon sequestration. A handshake does not count. This requires
rigor, accuracy, and robust accounting protocols that help us
do things like avoid double-counting.
In the landmark document, ``A National Strategic
Narrative,'' three core components were emphasized for future
national security: Land, Energy, and Water. In the face of a
changing climate, nothing could be truer today. With the known
challenges to agriculture's future, the question that must be
posed, and especially thinking of our younger generations, is
what level of food security risk do we assume by not acting?
The easy bet is that continued and increased investment in
Extension and Research will work to ensure we regenerate our
food production system, mitigate climate risk and enhance
national security for future generations.
Thank you again for the opportunity to address the
committee and I look forward to any questions.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Rowntree can be found on
page 51 in the appendix.]
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you so much. Dr. Nave, welcome.
STATEMENT OF FELECIA NAVE, Ph.D., PRESIDENT, ALCORN STATE
UNIVERSITY, LORMAN, MS
Dr. Nave. Thank you. Good morning, Chairwoman Stabenow,
Ranking Member Boozman, and members of the Committee for
inviting me to participate in today's hearing. I am Felecia M.
Nave, and I have the privilege of serving as the 20th President
of Alcorn State University, which is located in Lorman,
Mississippi. I also serve on the Executive Committee of the
1890 Council of Presidents, and I am honored to speak to you
today representing the 1890 University community.
On behalf of the 1890 Council, which is comprised of the 19
presidents and chancellors, I thank you for your past support
and for your future commitment to the growth and expansion of
the 1890 land-grant system, a commitment that furthers the
educational attainment, economic prosperity, and health of the
families, businesses and communities that our institutions
serve. The impacts of our universities are significant and the
positive outcomes for the communities we serve, and the Nation,
are even greater.
As a point of personal privilege, I want to share a little
background about Alcorn State University. Founded in 1871,
Alcorn traces it heritage back to both the 1862 and 1890
Morrill Acts. Alcorn is unique among the 1890 institutions
because it is the only HBCU founded with a land-grant purpose
after the first Morrill Act, making it America's oldest public
historically Black land-grand institution.
The 2023 Farm Bill presents an excellent opportunity to
build on key gains for the 1890's that were included the 2018
Farm Bill. It is also an opportunity to increase the financial
support in critical growth areas, scale initiatives that have
proven to be effective and successful and address other areas
of significance to the 1890 community. In my written testimony
I submitted for the record I outlined several key areas that we
would like to work with Congress and the members of the
Committee on in the reauthorization of the 2023 Farm Bill.
Our work at the Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers
Policy Center, which was authorized in the 2014 Farm Bill, is
an example of the important work of taking a policy idea and
turning it into actionable items for the success of socially
disadvantages ranchers and farmers.
As you know the 2018 Farm Bill included key investments in
student scholarships and centers of excellence at the 1890's.
Our universities are very grateful for the funding provided to
support scholarships with students interested in pursuing
careers in agriculture and agriculture-related fields. The new
scholarship program is working. We are recruiting and preparing
a diverse and talented new generation of agricuralists and food
scientists. Your continued support for the permanent expansion
of this scholarship program will have a significant impact for
our students, their families and the long-term benefit of the
country.
The funding that was provided in the 2018 Farm Bill to
establish the six centers of excellence support innovative
research and programming at our institutions. However, it is
imperative that funding included in the 2023 Farm Bill to stand
up a center at each university as it drives our ability to
remain competitive and contribute to the research vital to the
communities that we serve.
Congress also included in the 2018 Farm Bill a reporting
requirement that States share with USDA the one-to-one funding
match requirement for research and extension they are supposed
to meet. Although Mississippi meets its match, unfortunately
several States are still falling short of this requirement and
the resulting nearly $30 million of underfunding in just the
last three years continues to undermine the Federal investment
that Congress is making available to our institutions.
There is a great need for an increased investment to grow
the footprint and outreach of the extension agents at the
1890's. The agents are embedded in our communities and serve as
the boots on the ground. With more resources, our agents would
be able to serve more in our communities. As you know, our 19
universities are mainly in the rural areas of our States. We
train our students for jobs and careers and many of them have
to leave our communities to secure employment in their
respective field.
As we look to the 2023 Farm Bill, the 1890 universities
would like to work with Congress and this Committee to find
ways through the USDA Rural Development Agencies to bring
economic development opportunities to the surrounding areas of
our school. The goal would be to create meaningful jobs
prospects for our students to consider working and living in
the communities that we serve.
Last, for our institutions to remain competitive in
emerging areas, increased funding is required to support the
modernization and expansion of our research and technology
infrastructure and to build capacity. Congress has realized
this critical importance with the recent passage of the CHIPS
Act. We want to partner in these efforts and the work of this
Committee, and the resources provided in the farm bill can help
make that a reality.
I am grateful for this opportunity to address the
Committee. On behalf of the dedicated faculty, staff, and
students at Alcorn State University and throughout the 1890
university system, I thank you for your continuous support of
our institutions and agriculture.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Nave can be found on page 55
in the appendix.]
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you so much, Dr. Nave.
Dr. Rainey.
STATEMENT OF KATY RAINEY, Ph.D., ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR; DIRECTOR,
PURDUE SOYBEAN CENTER, PURDUE UNIVERSITY, WEST LAFAYETTE, IN
Dr. Rainey. Good morning, Chairwoman Stabenow, Ranking
Member Boozman, and members of the Committee. I am Dr. Katy
Martin Rainey, Associate Professor of Agronomy at Purdue
University. I am pleased to offer testimony on behalf of the
American Seed Trade Association.
Breeding and distributing the best seeds and other stocks
is integral to U.S. farm productivity and food security, and
requires substantial investments in R&D. A critical element of
crop improvement research is public-private partnerships. Thank
you for shining a light on the importance of agriculture
research.
Now more than ever, U.S. agricultural production is faced
with an array of emerging threats like extreme weather and new
pests, combined with needs to provide enhanced ecosystem
services such as improving water quality. U.S. seed companies,
public and private scientists, and U.S. producers will continue
to innovate to improve crops and production practices thanks to
cutting-edge research.
Strong investments in research means better outcomes for
our farmers, our consumers, our land, and our environment. I
would like to offer a few examples highlighting the value of
public-led plant research.
I leverage economically valuable crop breeding research to
also advance digital agriculture capacity for remote crop
growth estimation, known as phenomics, and I launched a
successful software company in this space. Because of my
federally funded training in entrepreneurism, I am seeking to
extend my technology to facilitate effective on-farm research.
A USDA geneticist at the Plant Genetics Research Unit in
Columbia, Missouri, discovered soybean mutants that produce
healthier oil, and then collaborated with the University of
Missouri soybean breeder to develop new varieties with funding
from commodity organizations, the USDA, and the university.
Lettuce is one of the most widely consumed vegetables in
the U.S. Scientists at UC Davis and ARS are collaborating to
develop and release varies and breeding lines for the private
sector, with critical resistance to diseases.
It is the truth that every bite of lettuce contains USDA
genetics, and thanks to private and public sector R&D
investments over time, gene editing is one of the most
promising areas of crop improvement research. For instance,
non-grounding varieties of fruits and vegetables like potatoes,
avocados, lettuce, and apples could significantly reduce food
waste.
We rely on support of the farm bill funding and programs to
ensure continued U.S. leadership as the provider of the best
seed to the world. ASTA worked closely with Congress to mandate
the development of a strategic germplasm and cultivar
collections assessment and utilization plan for the National
Plant Germplasm System. We look forward to its publication
which establishes a roadmap for the sustainability of NPGS for
years to come.
ARS capitalizes on long-term investments for high-impact
payoffs. Its management of vast collections of genetic
resources cannot be done by an individual university or
company. The Germplasm Enhancement of Maize project is a great
example of utilization of the NPGS. That project identifies
useful genetic diversity in exotic germplasm for commercial use
in developing U.S. corn hybrids.
Another key initiative is land-grant capacity funds through
the farm bill, which allow land-grant universities like Purdue
to invest in infrastructure and people for cutting-edge
research and extension that directly impacts farmers. Consider
as well that land-grants are critical to agriculture through
our role in STEM education. About 59,000 U.S. graduates with
agricultural expertise are needed per year, and land-grant
universities educate this work force.
Nonetheless, we face unprecedented infrastructure
challenges. U.S. scientists and educators are asked to perform
21st century science in facilities constructed in the 1950's
and 1960's, and this negatively impacts recruitment of the best
and most diverse talent to study critical topics in food
security. Robust support is needed via the Research Facilities
Act in this farm bill.
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture's
competitive grants program funds extramural research,
education, and Extension projects. We are encouraged that AFRI
received funding increases in recent congressional
appropriations cycles, but it continues to be funded
significantly below its authorized level.
Similarly, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research
is the primary entity promoting public-private partnerships in
this space by leveraging Federal funding to bring private
sector investments and knowledge to public scientists. With an
average matching rate of $1.40, FFAR is on track to invest
nearly $1 billion.
There is a misconception that the private sector has the
basic and applied research needs for row crops covered. Private
investments in row crops deserve corresponding investments in
public investments, because these crops, such as soybean, are
so economically valuable and critical to national security.
The Economic Research Service and the National Agricultural
Statistics Service provide foundational data in socioeconomics
and statistical insights that are critical for stakeholders.
The tools and services provided by these agencies inform the
decisions of seed companies and the rest of the private sector,
as well as scientists, producers, and policymakers.
For instance, providers across the country seek to adopt
conservation practices such as using cover crops to improve
soil health. Information on acres and types of cover crops
planted would help producers and the seed industry ensure the
availability of high-quality cover crop varieties at the right
place, in the right time.
The Agriculture Advanced Research and Development
Authority, or AGARDA, was established in the last farm bill to
support transformative advances the industry by itself is not
likely to undertake because of financial uncertainty. One great
area of potential within AGARDA is to promote agricultural
resiliency with data. A reauthorized and robustly funded AGARDA
would position USDA to lead agricultural data stakeholders in
the implementation of badly needed data infrastructure.
As we deal with ever-increasing challenges facing the
future of our planet, all of these programs have unique roles,
creating solutions for more secure and sustainable future while
keeping the U.S. competitive globally. Breeding high-quality,
state-of-the-art seed will bolster practices for climate
adaptation and mitigation and habitat restoration while also
benefiting farm productivity.
In summary, strong Federal investments in agriculture
research, leveraged through public-private partnerships, ensure
the success of U.S. farmers in a sustainable global food
production system.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide remarks today, and
thank you for your continued support for agriculture research
programs.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Rainey can be found on page
61 in the appendix.]
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much.
Mr. Ela, welcome.
STATEMENT OF STEVE ELA, PARTNER AND MANAGER, ELA FAMILY FARMS,
HOTCHKISS, CO
Mr. Ela. Thank you. Thank you for the privilege of being
here. It is a true pleasure to be able to speak.
I am going to start with the question my grandfather would
have asked in 1945: Do you substitute DDT for lead arsenate to
control worms in apples? That was the question of those days.
In four generations we have grown fruit in pretty much
every which way possible, using many different techniques. We
have marketed every different way in 115 years. I am going to
return to that research question of what do we choose.
Every day when I walk out of my door to my farm I have to
make choices--crop load management, fertility, irrigation
management, thinning, labor, economics. I can make those
choices based on research and knowledge on research and data,
or I can guess, or I can put my finger in the wind, or I can
use my experience or my intuition. The more I can base that
information and that knowledge on research and use that to make
those decisions, the better grower I am going to be.
Coming back, lead arsenate or DDT? That is the question my
granddad had to answer, and the problem with that is we are
talking about a substitution. We are talking about this or
that. As an organic grower--I have been conventional; I am now
organic--I have learned to get away from those single questions
and get into systems. I want to ask, if I am going to integrate
into a system, how am I going to make decisions? Rather than
saying DDT or lead arsenate, why would I not ask, what cover
crop would I plant? What cover crop would I plant that would
enhance the biodiversity of my farm, that would enhance the
beneficial insects that will help control the aphids and the
mites and the worms? At the same time that cover crop could be
providing fertility that I do not have to buy from off-farm,
because it could be fixing nitrogen from the air, so fertility
is not a supply chain issue. At the same time that cover crop
could be providing soil organic matter which will enhance the
water-holding capacity of my soil, which will make my
irrigation management easier. At the same time, that cover crop
could also be sequestering carbon and helping with our climate
change.
I am going to challenge you today, as we talk about
research, to change the paradigm of how we think, from single
endpoint inputs to multiple systems thinking. This is the new
way we have to go, and it goes with regenerative agriculture,
it goes with organic, it goes with conventional agriculture. I
am going to say that that systems approach is going to help
solve multiple problems at once. We no longer have the time or
the money to be able to solve each problem one by one. We need
to think globally and we need to think in terms of ecosystems,
and that is the paradigm we need to go toward.
I am also going to say that when we invest in that, and
those organic systems, and how the farm system works, we are
not just benefiting organic growers, we are going to benefit
all agricultural growers, conventional growers as well. Some of
the projects that have been done, say in the 1990's, with
codling moth and worms, with pheromone mating disruption, they
were pioneered on organic farms, and they are now used by
nearly 80 percent of the conventional industry.
If we want to talk about cover crops, which NRCS is pushing
now, if we want to talk about regenerative agriculture, those
are the mainstays that have always formed the foundations of
organic agriculture. Those things are benefiting all of us,
conventional, organic growers as well.
The final thing is that we need to have organic research as
part of all of our organic research programs. As a grower, we
have conducted on-farm research with a number of universities.
We have worked with Michigan. We have worked with Arkansas. We
have worked with Colorado. We have worked with California,
Oregon, and Washington. We have worked with programs like OREI.
We have worked with SARE. We have worked with SCRI. We have
worked with ARS, and we have worked with Regional Seeds and
Breeds Programs. Each of those, having an organic component and
increasing the organic specific funding will help us change the
paradigm of how we can work forward and use biological systems
that will make us stronger.
We are going to face unprecedented changes. We are facing
climatic changes. We are facing more freezes, more rainfalls.
We are facing invasive insects. We are facing higher input
costs. Looking at these as a system where we can solve multiple
problems with a system and not just one by one, will make us a
much stronger agricultural system.
Thank you for having me here today.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Ela can be found on page 67
in the appendix.]
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you so much. Really important
insights.
Dr. Fields, welcome.
STATEMENT OF DEACUE FIELDS, Ph.D., VICE PRESIDENT FOR
AGRICULTURE, UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS SYSTEM DIVISION OF
AGRICULTURE, LITTLE ROCK, AR
Dr. Fields. Thank you. Chairwoman Stabenow, Ranking Member
Boozman, and members of the Committee, I am grateful for the
opportunity to testify on behalf of the entire land-grant
system. I am also grateful for the significance this Committee
has placed on the research title of the next farm bill, as
evidenced by this hearing.
As Senator Boozman mentioned, I have either been a student
or a faculty member at three of the Nation's premier 1862 land-
grant institutions, and two premier 1890 land-grants before
coming to the University of Arkansas. I consider myself a
walking billboard for the power of the Nation's land-grant
system to connect a young man from a small agrarian town in
northern Louisiana with the world.
Through my various roles I have witnessed the
transformative strength of the land-grant system which marries
vision with relevance. It is the foundational stone that
undergirds public and private advances in research and
innovation, trains our future, allows us robust resiliency in
the face of continual and mounting challenges, and is the
nucleus of the world's food security.
Federal support for teaching, research, and extension has
been critical for over a century and a half. Building on this
noble legacy, I want to share some additional recommendations.
Earlier this year, we talked about the Economic Research
Service and the decline in public support for agricultural
research. Seventy percent of agricultural R&D is performed at
land-grant universities and other non-Federal entities. The
global competitiveness of U.S. agricultural research is
challenged as public investment declines disproportionately.
Land-grants have successfully leveraged Federal resources,
provided and informed collaborative partnerships with other
land-grants, industry, State, and county government. Using
Arkansas as an example, in 2022, the State appropriated funds
accounting for 56.5 percent and Federal capacity funds
accounted for 6.3 percent of the total University of Arkansas
Division of Ag budget.
From 2017 to 2022, the share of the Federal capacity
funding decreased by 2.8 percent while extramural funding from
grants increased by 2.1 percent, and county extension program
funding increased by 1 percent. Industry grants account for
about 45 percent of all extramural grant funding at the
University of Arkansas.
In Arkansas, USDA Ag Research Service units are either
housed in or co-located with or supported by the UA system
entities. This was seen as a necessary way to leverage ARS
investment while benefiting the scope and reach of the UA
system research. Over a 20-year period, beginning in 1990, the
Division of Agriculture met regularly with national and
regional ARS administrators to help ensure complementarity of
our research activities.
At every land-grant institution in the country, our
research infrastructure is degrading and literally crumbling in
many instances. We cannot try to do 21st century research in
mid-20th century facilities, which was the last time a major
investment was done in our research infrastructure.
The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
estimated deferred maintenance costs of nearly $100 million.
Within the last five years, we have managed to bring two new
facilities online. We have saved 13 years to be able to begin
construction on one facility, forcing us to abandon sorely
needed maintenance and renovation on existing facilities. On
the other, we were forced to remain a substandard facility 15
years beyond its time to be razed before we could cobble
together enough resources to replace it.
Land-grants are expected to be able to evaluate and
showcase the latest technology, but in many cases our
agricultural producers have more modern technology than we do.
One of the most impactful things our Federal partners can do is
invest in the infrastructure necessary for us to continue to do
cutting-edge research, extension, and teaching programs.
Reauthorizing funding for the Research Facilities Act will
allow land-grant institutions to modernize our research
facilities and begin to address the $11.5 billion backlog of
deferred maintenance nationally.
Land-grant universities have proven their ability to bring
world-class solutions to grassroots problems throughout the
country. Our research discoveries have resulted in U.S. being
able to have the safest, most efficient food system in the
world. We must make bold moves to have infrastructure and
technology necessary to improve efficiency, profitability, and
health while protecting the environment in rural and urban
communities.
It is critical that agricultural research funding increase
to remain a global leader and produce the technological
advances necessary to meet the challenge of feeding the growing
global population. Supporting agricultural research and
infrastructure development is not a donation, but an investment
in the future of national and international food security.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Fields can be found on page
73 in the appendix.]
Chairwoman Stabenow. Well, thank you so much, and thank you
to each of you for really important testimony. Let me start
with Dr. Rowntree, and thank you again for being here. It is
always great to see a fellow Spartan here at the table.
Much of your career has focused on using extension to help
farmers implement research on the ground to really improve
resiliency of farms, as you talked about. In the next farm
bill, how can we strengthen ag research and extension to help
our farmers become more resilient to the impacts of the climate
crisis?
Dr. Rowntree. Thank you, Senator Stabenow. Great question.
I look back to when I first started in my career, and at
Michigan I believe we had like six to seven beef specialists
out in the state that were extension folks, and over time that
has dropped significantly. I can say the same about dairy and
other things. I think having boots on the ground regionally is
going to be highly important.
I think simultaneously as we do get more folks into the
regions and out away from East Lansing and into the State, I
think simultaneously education of those folks is key. I believe
that we have the knowledge to mitigate climate. We have the
knowledge to impact resilience. We always need more, obviously.
I think through the investment in these typically younger folks
going out into these areas and investing in their education or
understanding of ecology, their understanding of technology
will be highly vital.
I think finally, just thinking through this, from the
standpoint of encouragement of funding that has been historic
of merging extension and research, I think should absolutely
continue. In fact, most of the researchers I work with today
are getting more and more good with extension, and I think the
auspice of even considering our extension folks as applied, on-
farm researchers that can be the hands and feet of said land-
grant are going to be important as well.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Great. Thank you very much.
Dr. Nave, I appreciate you joining us as well and for
educating the next generation of our food and agricultural
professionals, and the 1890 land-grant institutions are
absolutely vital to improving our diversity and also uplifting
rural communities. Thank you for being here.
How have the investments provided by Congress in the 2018
Farm Bill strengthened your ability to reach more students and
recruit qualified faculty members at Alcorn State?
Dr. Nave. Thank you, Chairwoman Stabenow. Great question.
The support that we receive through the scholarship program has
been absolutely impactful to our ability to recruit talented
students, to increase the interest in the agriculture field,
agriculture-related fields, and being able to come in and to be
successful. It lowers the financial burden for those students,
so they are able to concentrate on making sure that they are
being prepared, trained, and ready to go out into the work
force. The scholarships have been monumental in supporting the
work that we do in being able to serve the communities that we
serve.
As mentioned by my colleagues here, although there have
been great gains, because of the significant infrastructure
challenges that we face in delivering a more modern experience
and being able to address some of our modern challenges
nationwide, being able to improve our facilities is monumental.
I cannot stress enough the impact or the need to be able to
provide first-class facilities in attracting students and
faculty and staff so they can continue the innovative research
that will be needed in order to address many of the challenges
that we have.
Although the support has continued to be there, when you
look at the communities that we serve, the need are great, and
they can be greater because in our areas, particularly in our
rural communities, we lack so much. The investments need to be
even greater in order to reach an additional level of parity
for our communities.
Thank you for the question.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much.
Mr. Ela, first of all, thank you again for being here. I
know it is hard when you are operating a farm to be able to get
away and be here. Your perspective is really important.
How are the research needs of the organic sector unique,
and what are the ways we can better support organic farmers
when we are looking particularly at the research and extension
programs?
Mr. Ela. I think the research needs are unique in several
ways. One is because we are learning about systems--and I have
said that over and over--but it really was a change of thinking
for me as a grower from what can I do with solving one problem
at a time, I am going to change one thing, for one reason, then
I am going to change something else, to thinking of my whole
farm as a unique entity and as a whole system.
Long-term projects that allow the system to become a system
and to set testing different ideas, looking at multiple
answers. If we are talking about beneficial insects, I want to
support multiple beneficial insects, not just one. If the
climate changes in one year or another, then one or the other
insect is going to help. We are going to have to look at larger
perspectives.
The other thing, I think, is that we just need to really
look at natural systems and learn from them, because the
natural systems themselves, when I watch and let the system do
the work for me, I always learn something. I am a lazy person.
I do not want to have to go out and work. If I can let my farm
do the work for me, and then I intervene when I absolutely need
to, there is more power to it. I would rather go to lunch. I
would rather have coffee. I would rather do other things.
Having a system on my farm and researching those systems I
think is very unique, but it also will benefit all growers.
Chairwoman Stabenow. Thank you very much. I am sure you are
not lazy. My guess is you are just very smart, so thank you for
your testimony.
I am going to turn it over to Senator Boozman and apologize
that we have a vote just started on a Michigan judge on the
floor, and I need to be on the floor. To my Ranking Member I am
going to turn over the gavel. Very good. Thank you so much.
Senator Boozman.
[Presiding.] A little responsibility here.
Chairwoman Stabenow. That is right.
Senator Boozman. Dr. Fields, welcome again to the Senate
Agriculture Committee, and we are so proud of the work that you
are doing in Arkansas, and really throughout the system. In
your testimony you highlight, and as others have highlighted
also, the considerable need for infrastructure, even in a
system such as the University of Arkansas, where private and
State resources are vast. Can you walk us through your specific
needs? What research outcomes are we potentially losing by not
investing in infrastructure across the land-grant institutions?
Dr. Fields. Certainly. Thank you for that question, Senator
Boozman. As I mentioned, you know, just at the University of
Arkansas, our needs in terms of deferred maintenance total
about $100 million. Our immediate needs there, we have
buildings that we are trying to conduct 21st century research
in, such as our Food Science Building, where we have the
Arkansas Food Innovation Center that is there. Places like
that, where we try to do what is innovative, we are doing in
substandard facilities, and I think that is the case
nationally.
When we talk about what we have missed, I can say that
almost every university has missed opportunities to hire top
faculty as a result of the infrastructure that exists. We
personally had two faculty members for an endowed position that
we lost as a result of substandard facilities.
We are trying to conduct low-moisture research in a
facility where we cannot get the relative humidity below 80
percent.
We are doing things to try make this work, but there are
several opportunities that we are missing. When we look at our
opportunities to be competitive for extramural funding, the
folks funding that research anticipate that we will have the
facilities necessary to conduct the research and to conduct
that research at a high level, and at that point we are missing
a big opportunity based on where our facilities are.
Have kind of tried to put together a strategy at the
University of Arkansas, but I think nationally our land-grant
partners have looked at ranking priorities for facilities that
give them an opportunity to be aggressive at taking advantage
of things that are current issues, and being able to address
high technology and issues that exist throughout our Nation.
Senator Boozman. Very good. Dr. Rainey, thank you for our
work and for you highlighting several important programs. In my
view, you demonstrate the ideal partnership between publicly
and privately funded research and what is possible when this
enterprise is working at its best.
I guess the question that I have is, in addition to funding
these key programs what else can Congress do to unleash
innovation in biotechnology and seed production?
Dr. Rainey. Great question. Thank you. Primarily what we
need is regulatory alignment between USDA, FDA, and EPA, and
that is absolutely necessary to fully realize the potential for
innovation in agriculture and to maintain America's position in
agriculture leadership, and to ensure that our farmers have
access to the latest tools, technologies, and plant varieties.
We are here asking for investments in research, in a range
of areas and a range of topics, but we need to make sure that
the regulatory environment and policies are in place that allow
innovation to reach farmers' fields and the consumers' plate.
For example, gene editing technology has a lot of promise to
impact nutrition, as we were talking about when Dr. Jacobs-
Young was here. Gene editing can make foods more palatable and
last longer, but we need to have policies in place for those
products to reach the market. Regulatory alignment between
USDA, EPA, and FDA. Thank you.
Senator Boozman. Very good. Thank you. As I mentioned in my
opening statement, I continue to be concerned by our global
food security situation. Talking to people like David Beasley,
head of the World Food Programme, we have a significant
problem, especially in the next few years. Sri Lanka is not
alone in pushing misguided policies that will have devastating
impacts on food production. The Netherlands is currently
forcing farmers to comply with ever-increasing environmental
mandates or face a compulsory land buyout situation which it is
estimated will lose thousands of family farms there as a result
of that.
Countless nations continue to enact biotechnology bans, and
if the European Union continues down its road, they risk having
only marginal agricultural production left. The list goes on
and on. Inefficient production practices and misguided
government mandates will negatively impact world hunger.
I guess, again, anyone can jump in that would like to, but
in your view how can innovation help us continue producing food
and fiber efficiently? What does Congress need to do to help
you continue with the trajectory that we have on the chart? I
agree with you, Mr. Ela. Your grandfather had the choices. The
good news is that if you look at this chart, back in his year
the trajectory has gone up here, with the inputs staying fairly
the same.
The other thing, too, and I agree with you totally in
looking at systems, okay. The problem that we face so often
here is we try and put the same system in every situation. In
other words--and you know better than this and you are an
expert, all of you all are--but the system that works on your
farm, with your moisture content, with your soil, is different
than the system that works where Dr. Fields grew up, in
Louisiana.
If anybody would comment very quickly, or I am going to
have to gavel myself down.
Mr. Ela. Well, if I could quickly respond, I think you have
actually pegged it. Yes, the systems are different. The tenets
of the system, the basis--so how do nutrients transform in
soils--there are some consistencies. As we face that our
climate is changing, we are going to have to look to those
other systems to see what we can do on our farm to change
things to make them more resilient.
The system itself, I want to stress it is redundant, it is
resilient, and that is going to be the important part. We are
not going to do it overnight, and they are going to be
different, and they are going to be regionally adapted, and
that is the point. One size does not fit all in this changing
world at this point. We are going to have to learn and adapt.
Senator Boozman. Senator Braun. Thank you, and again, thank
you bringing that up. That really was my point.
Senator Braun. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Rainey, we had a nice conversation earlier today and
focused on a couple of things. One was the increasing anxiety
among farmers going through a year like 2022, where most
indicated to me--I visited all 92 counties, the last one was
riding in a combine in Spencer County, just south of where I
live--that they just made it through all that uncertainty. He
and others have expressed they are worried about 2023. I think
that is even going to be a tougher scenario to get the crop out
and all the inputs you actually need.
Tell me what you think we need to do better that can
approach, through the R&D side, both revenue enhancement, to do
all the things that technology has maybe kind of weighed in on
for agriculture, and then cost savings. Because that elusive
bottom line, which seems to go higher and higher in terms of
the altitude of your revenues, and the profit margin absolutely
stays the same, I think farmers could really be interested to
seeing how it is not so thin each year, trying to craft a
bottom line.
Dr. Rainey. Okay. You are asking how to increase revenues
for farmers? Well, they are taking the chart away that showed
we have exponential increases in output with the same input.
Senator Braun. What are a few of the things that we need to
either spend more money on? What are the breakthrough areas,
because that is the next thing I am going to ask you. What are
the two or three kind of most optimistic areas of research that
would help craft a better profit, either through revenue
enhancement or cost reductions?
Dr. Rainey. Right, and this goes back to what Senator
Boozman was talking about, his concern for global food
security. There are a number of technologies. I mean, I am very
hopeful about the outlook for global food security. There are a
number of technologies that are yet to be explored or are yet
to be deployed. Some promising technologies that need both
investment and a favorable regulatory and policy environment,
include gene editing, as we have been talking about, or I
mentioned earlier. Another promising area is so-called
predictive analytics in the seed industry. That is a huge area
of investment and cost savings, and will also bring more
productive seed to farmers.
You mentioned that farmers need to save money on inputs,
and really, I am so excited about the see-and-spray technology,
which is where we use sensors to detect weeds and then deliver
herbicides, in this case, in a very concentrated and effective
way. I think that the sensor-based technologies, in general,
will really help farmers with their bottom line, though they
are expensive to invest in, of course.
Then I think the fourth promising area for the outlook of
global food security--I am not sure about saving the farmers'
bottom line--but it is the sort of information-sharing and just
national coordination around conservation practices. You know,
we have been talking about how, in the future, we are going to
move toward even more sort regional or localized solutions, but
I think we need national coordination, discussion,
communication, and education where information flows both ways.
I think AGARDA is really important to that.
Going back to the farmers' bottom line, I think the land-
grants have a role in that, with Extension, and that we need an
independent, unbiased source of information for our farmers to
make decisions. Like you were saying, you need data for
decisions, and it helps to have a third-party voice in that.
Senator Braun. When you are talking about discussion, I was
asked in the Senate Climate Caucus, as a freshman Senator, when
no one else would do it on my side of the aisle. We have come a
long way. We actually passed a bill that went through the
Senate, 92-8, Growing Climate Solutions Act, which would have
matched up good stewardship with preexisting markets. Senator
Boozman was very important in getting that across the finish
line.
Well, alas, it is sitting over in the House, and has for a
year, and every farm group was for it. You still run into
political snags, and that is a place where I can tell you, in
the three years since I have been there, not only agriculture,
electric generation, industrial emitters, steel and concrete,
transportation, all the CEOs, all the thought leaders in this
country are recognizing it. Agriculture, since we met, I think
only 10 percent through agriculture in the greenhouse gasses,
25 percent across the world, we got a lot to show others. I
hope that is going to be something on display for an issue that
is important.
Dr. Rainey. Yes, you mentioned conservation, and we have
been talking about research and farmers, and an area to invest
in, I think is nationally coordinated on-farm research for
conservation practices. I think that is where we are going to
get the critical mass of data in place and analytics to start
making, I guess, evidence-based decisions, policies, management
decisions around conservation and climate mitigation.
Senator Braun. Thank you.
Senator Boozman. Thank you, Senator Braun, and thank you
for your leadership on the Growing Climate Solutions bill. We
appreciate it.
Again, I thank the panel for being here. You all did a
great job. We learned a lot. You had really significant
participation from lots of members of the Senate. We appreciate
you pushing your message out, and it really will help us as we
try and get things in the future with the farm bill, and look
forward to continuing to ask you for your advice.
With that the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:23 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
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