[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
           
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                  Available on http://www.govinfo.gov/
                  
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                   U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
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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

                              ----------                              

                       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
                              ----------                              

                                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

                              ----------                              


                       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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