[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 157 (Monday, November 3, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13834-S13835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FIFTY YEARS OF OUTSTANDING SERVICE BY AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the immediate consideration of S.J. Res. 22, which was
introduced earlier today.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the joint resolution by
title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A joint resolution (S.J. Res 22) recognizing the
Agricultural Research Service of the Department of
Agriculture for 50 years of outstanding service to the Nation
through agricultural research.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the joint
resolution.
Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, on November 3, 2003, the Agricultural
Research Service, the primary research agency in the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, will celebrate its 50th anniversary. To commemorate this
special anniversary, I, along with Senator Harkin, am offering a Senate
joint resolution to recognize the important contributions the
Agricultural Research Service provides to the agriculture community and
to the Nation. Although ARS can trace its heritage back to early 19th
century seed collection activities in the U.S. Patent Office, it was
officially organized on November 2, 1953, when USDA consolidated most
of its research functions into the newly named Agricultural Research
Service. Today, ARS is a public institution that conducts agricultural
research exclusively for the public good. The research is often long-
term and costly, and unlikely to be undertaken by the private sector.
The ARS discoveries and innovations touch the lives of every American
through the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the environment in
which we live.
I am very proud of the accomplishments ARS has made in my State. For
example, ARS established the Lower Mississippi Delta Nutrition
Intervention Research Initiative in 1995 to improve the health of
residents of the Mississippi Delta through nutrition intervention
research. ARS has partnered with, among others, the University of
Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg and Alcorn State University in
Lorman to identify food and nutrition problems in communities and to
design nutrition interventions to determine how and why people make
food choices, and how those choices could be improved. Another fine
example of the partnership between the ARS and our Mississippi
universities is the Southern Horticultural Laboratory in Poplarville.
This ARS small fruit research facility, in cooperation with Mississippi
State University, has led in the establishment of a vibrant blueberry
industry in South Mississippi and other Gulf Coast States and has now
expanded to include research on ornamentals and vegetables.
The ARS Catfish Genetics Research Unit at Stoneville, in partnership
with Mississippi State University, bred a new catfish variety, NWAC
103, and released it in February 2001. This marks one of the few times
genetic research has improved catfish since the industry started in the
United States in the late 1950s. Since then, catfish has become one of
the most successful aquacultural enterprises, thereby guaranteeing a
plentiful supply of high-quality fish to consumers. Also, ARS
scientists, in partnership with the University of Mississippi
scientists, invented a new natural product-based algaecide for use in
catfish aquaculture, thus providing an alternative to synthetic
herbicides.
A special ARS project in the late 1990s in Mississippi showed that
farm runoff is not damaging Mississippi
[[Page S13835]]
groundwater. Data from the 7,320-acre Mississippi Delta Management
Systems Evaluation Areas in Sunflower and LeFlore counties showed
contamination by farm chemicals is not a problem. The Mississippi Delta
MSEA also focused on farmland erosion control and preventing sediment
and chemical runoff into three oxbow lakes: Beasley, Thighman and Deep
Hollow. Technology being tested in the Delta MSEA not only enhances the
health of the lakes, thus increasing fish and duck numbers, but may
also help growers reduce costs.
To mark its five decades of public service and, in recognition of the
local and national partnerships that are the foundation of much of
their research, ARS will celebrate with various events throughout the
next year following a kick-off celebration on November 3, 2003.
I commend the Agricultural Research Service on the occasion of its
50th anniversary and look forward to many more years of its important
service to the Nation.
Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, 50 years ago, James Watson and Francis
Crick were identifying the double-helix molecule of DNA. The first
embryo transfers from donor cows to recipients were made. The Korean
War ended. And the Agricultural Research Service was created.
The creation of ARS was not the beginning of the Department of
Agriculture's efforts in agricultural research. President Abraham
Lincoln signed the act creating the department, which included the
charge to ``acquire and diffuse among the people of the United States
useful information . . . and to procure, propagate, and distribute
among the people new and valuable seeds and plants.'' The Department's
commitment to agricultural research reaches back nearly 150 years. The
ARS itself was created by Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson
through a reorganization of the former Agricultural Research
Administration, on November 2, 1953.
In its 50 years of service, the ARS has discovered dozens of ways to
protect crops and livestock from pests and disease. It has improved the
quality and safety of agricultural products. It has played a critical
role in developing nutrition standards and carrying out nutrition
research. It has also developed techniques to maintain the quality of
our soil, perhaps our greatest renewable natural resource. Its research
has helped farmers work more efficiently and profitably. And it has
worked to develop ways to keep food affordable for consumers.
My State has been one of the greatest beneficiaries of ARS research,
and the National Animal Disease Center at Ames, Iowa has played a vital
role over the years in carrying out the mission of ARS.
Hog cholera was one of the greatest problems faced by hog farmers in
this country for more than 130 years, since it was first reported in
Ohio in 1833. Outbreaks occurred frequently over the years, some
resulting in the loss of more than one in 10 hogs in the U.S. In the
early 1960's, hog cholera was still costing farmers $50 million per
year.
Agricultural research at USDA on hog cholera, much of it carried out
in Ames, IA, dates back to the 1903 discovery of the hog cholera virus.
ARS large scale studies starting in 1961 developed and tested a program
to immunize hogs against cholera using killed virus. On the advice of
ARS, USDA regulatory officials banned interstate shipment of live virus
or animals vaccinated with live virus. In January 1978, Secretary of
Agriculture Bob Bergland announced that, as a result of an aggressive
campaign that employed the treatment techniques developed by ARS, that
hog cholera had been entirely eradicated.
ARS has had many similar successes. The eradication of screwworm in
cattle and Marek's disease in chickens has saved an untold amount of
money by preventing livestock losses. It is estimated that the savings
from the Marek's disease program is 44.3 times it's cost for every
dollar spent on immunization, $44.30 is saved. For those who suggest
that domestic government spending does not help the economy, the work
of ARS stands as a great example of a program that works and helps
American farmers be the best in the world.
So I salute the scientists of ARS for their 50 years of service to
agriculture, and wish them 50 more. There are still many challenges to
agriculture, and ARS will be there working to solve them.
Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be read
the third time and passed, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to
reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, and that any statements
relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The joint resolution (S.J. Res. 22) was read the third time and
passed.
The preamble was agreed to.
The joint resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:
S.J. Res. 22
Whereas the Agricultural Research Service is the primary
research agency of the Department of Agriculture and provides
the Department of Agriculture and other Federal offices with
objective research that is critical to the missions of those
offices;
Whereas the agricultural research conducted by the
Agricultural Research Service has an enormous impact on the
economic viability of agriculture in the United States and
around the world;
Whereas people around the world, especially rural
Americans, enjoy a higher quality of life due in part to the
work of the Agricultural Research Service to expand
scientific knowledge;
Whereas the Agricultural Research Service has achieved
major scientific breakthroughs that have benefited farmers,
ranchers, agribusiness, and consumers;
Whereas the Agricultural Research Service has made
scientific discoveries and technological developments that
address agricultural problems of broad scope and high
national priority, ensure safe and high quality food and
other agricultural products that meet nutritional needs, and
maintain a quality environment and natural resource base; and
Whereas the Agricultural Research Service continues to play
a vital role in maintaining the global competitiveness and
leadership of the United States in the next millennium: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That
Congress--
(1) recognizes the Agricultural Research Service of the
Department of Agriculture for 50 years of outstanding service
to the Nation through agricultural research; and
(2) acknowledges the promise of the Agricultural Research
Service to continue to perform outstanding agricultural
research in the next 50 years and beyond.
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