[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 134 (Friday, November 19, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11641-S11643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BOND (for himself, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Bennett, and Mr. 
        Harkin):
  S. 3009. A bill to establish a Division of Food and Agricultural 
Science within the National Science Foundation and to authorize funding 
for the support of fundamental agricultural research of the highest 
quality, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Agriculture, 
Nutrition, and Forestry.
  Mr. BOND. I rise today to introduce legislation with Senator 
Mikulski, Senator Bennett, and Senator Harkin to establish a division 
of food and agricultural science within the National Science Foundation 
to support fundamental agricultural research of the highest quality. I 
present this to begin a critical discussion that I believe we must have 
over the next several months and perhaps over the next year or so about 
how we are going to ensure we capitalize on the technology to maximize 
the benefits and minimize the costs of our agricultural production.

  We remain the world leader in food and fiber production. We do it 
safely and through technology and the hard work of the American farmer. 
In the past half century, the number of people fed by a single U.S. 
farm has grown from 19 to 129. We have a tremendously innovative 
agricultural research program. Our farmers, our farm leaders are on the 
cutting edge of developing new technology. And we have seen the 
innovations continue to come down the pike. This has made it possible 
for one farmer to feed 129 people.
  In addition, we export $60 billion worth of agricultural products, 
and we do so at less cost and at less harm to the environment than any 
of our competitors around the world, again, because of new practices, 
diligence on the part of farmers, and new technology.
  In a world that has a decreasing amount of soil available for 
cultivation, we have a growing population and we still have 800 million 
children who are hungry or malnourished throughout the world. As some 
have said: A person who is well fed can have many problems. A person 
who is hungry has but one problem. Unless we maximize technology and 
new practices, production will continue to overtax the world's natural 
resources.
  Many people legitimately have raised concerns regarding new diseases 
and pests and related food safety issues. And they are growing. The 
leading competitiveness of our U.S. producers is only as solid as our 
willingness to invest in forward-looking investments and build upon our 
historic successes.
  Now, we also know from past experience that with new technology the 
doors are being opened to novel new uses of renewable agricultural 
products in the fields of energy, medicine, and industrial products. In 
the future, we can make our farm fields and farm animals factories for 
everyday products, fuels, and medicines in a way that is efficient and 
better preserves our natural resources. Advances in the life sciences 
have come about, such as genetics, proteomics, and cell and molecular 
biology. They are providing the base for new and continuing 
agricultural innovations.
  It was only about a dozen years ago that farmers in Missouri came to 
me to tell me about the potential that genetic engineering and plant 
biotechnology had for improving the production of food, and doing so 
with less impact on the environment, providing more nutritious food. 
Since that time, I have had a wonderful, continuing education, not in 
how it works but what it can do.
  We know now, for example, that in hungry areas of the world as many 
as half a million children go blind from vitamin A deficiency, and 
maybe a million die from vitamin A deficiency. Well, through plant 
biotechnology, the International Rice Research Institute in the 
Philippines has developed Golden Rice, taking a gene from the 
sunflower, a beta-carotene gene, and they enrich the rice. The Golden 
Rice now has that vitamin A, and that is going to make a significant 
difference in dealing with malnutrition.
  We also know that in many areas of the world, where agricultural 
production has overtaxed the land, where drought has cut the 
production, where virus has plagued production, the way we can make 
farmers self-sufficient, where we can restore the farm economy in many 
of these countries, is through plant biotechnology.

  But this is just the beginning. This legislation I am introducing 
today is a discussion draft which I hope is going to lay the foundation 
for tremendous advances in the future.

[[Page S11642]]

  This legislation stems from findings and recommendations produced by 
a distinguished group of scientists working on the Agricultural 
Research, Economics and Education Task Force, which I was honored to be 
able to include in the 2002 farm bill. The distinguished task force was 
led by Dr. William H. Danforth, of St. Louis, the brother of our former 
distinguished colleague, Senator Jack Danforth. Dr. Bill Danforth has a 
tremendous reputation in science and in education, with a commitment to 
human welfare and is known worldwide. He was joined by Dr. Nancy Betts, 
the University of Nebraska; Mr. Michael Bryan, president of BBI 
International; Dr. Richard Coombe, the Watershed Agricultural Council; 
Dr. Victor Lechtenbert, Purdue University; Dr. Luis Sequeira, the 
University of Wisconsin; Dr. Robert Wideman, the University of 
Arkansas; and Dr. H. Alan Wood, Mississippi State University.
  I extend my congratulations and my sincere gratitude to Dr. Danforth 
and his team for providing the basis and the roadmap to ensure we have 
the mechanisms in place to solve the problems and capitalize on the 
opportunities in agricultural research. The full report of the task 
force can be found at www.ars.usda.gov/research.htm.
  In summary, that study concludes that it is absolutely necessary we 
reinvigorate and forward focus our technology to meet the 
responsibilities of our time. New investment is critical for the 
world's consumers, the protection of our natural resources, the 
standard of living for Americans who labor in rural America, and for 
the well-being of the hungry people and the needy people throughout the 
world.
  I look forward to pursuing this vision in the 109th Congress. I 
invite my colleagues who are interested in science and research to 
review this report, to look at this measure, to join with me and my 
cosponsors in the next session of Congress to talk about moving forward 
on what I think will be a tremendous opportunity to improve agriculture 
and its benefits to all our populations.
  Now, I cannot speak for all agricultural groups, but I talked to 
agricultural leaders of the various commodities, the farm organizations 
in my State of Missouri. They are very excited about it because these 
are the people who have been on the leading edge, who have pushed for 
the new technology, who have pushed for the new research that has 
enabled them to go from feeding 19 people per farmer a half century ago 
to feeding 129 people per farmer.
  Madam President, this, I hope, will be the start of something really 
big. So, with that, I send the draft of the legislation to the desk.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 3009

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION. 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``National Food and 
     Agricultural Science Act of 2004''.

     SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

       In this Act:
       (1) Council.--The term ``Council'' means the Standing 
     Council of Advisors established under section 4(c).
       (2) Director.--Except as otherwise provided in this Act, 
     the term ``Director'' means the Director of Food and 
     Agricultural Science.
       (3) Division.--The term ``Division'' means the Division of 
     Food and Agricultural Science established under section 4(a).
       (4) Foundation.--The term ``Foundation'' means the National 
     Science Foundation.
       (5) Fundamental agricultural research; fundamental 
     science.--The terms ``fundamental agricultural research'' and 
     ``fundamental science'' mean fundamental research or science 
     that--
       (A) advances the frontiers of knowledge so as to lead to 
     practical results or to further scientific discovery; and
       (B) has an effect on agriculture, food, human health, or 
     another purpose of this Act, as described in section 3(b).
       (6) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
     of Agriculture.
       (7) United States.--The term ``United States'' when used in 
     a geographical sense means the States, the District of 
     Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and all 
     territories and possessions of the United States.

     SEC. 3. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

       (a) Findings.--The Agricultural Research, Economics, and 
     Education Task Force established under section 7404 of the 
     Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 3101 
     note) conducted an exhaustive review of agricultural research 
     in the United States and evaluated the merits of establishing 
     1 or more national institutes focused on disciplines 
     important to the progress of food and agricultural science. 
     Consistent with the findings and recommendations of the 
     Agricultural Research, Economics, and Education Task Force, 
     Congress finds the following:
       (1) Agriculture in the United States faces critical 
     challenges, including an impending crisis in the food, 
     agricultural, and natural resource systems of the United 
     States. Exotic diseases and pests threaten crops and 
     livestock, obesity has reached epidemic proportions, 
     agriculturally-related environmental degradation is a serious 
     problem for the United States and other parts of the world, 
     certain animal diseases threaten human health, and United 
     States producers of some major crops are no longer the 
     world's lowest cost producers.
       (2) In order to meet these critical challenges, it is 
     essential that the Nation ensure that the agricultural 
     innovation that has been so successful in the past continues 
     in the future. Agricultural innovation has resulted in hybrid 
     and higher yielding varieties of basic crops and enhanced the 
     world's food supply by increasing yields on existing acres. 
     Since 1960, the world's population has tripled with no net 
     increase in the amount of land under cultivation. Currently, 
     only 1.5 percent of the population of the United States 
     provides the food and fiber to supply the Nation's needs. 
     Agriculture and agriculture sciences play a major role in 
     maintaining the health and welfare of all people of the 
     United States and in husbanding our land and water, and that 
     role must be expanded.
       (3) Fundamental scientific research that leads to 
     understandings of how cells and organisms work is critical to 
     continued innovation in agriculture in the United States. 
     Such future innovations are dependent on fundamental 
     scientific research, and will be enhanced by ideas and 
     technologies from other fields of science and research.
       (4) Opportunities to advance fundamental knowledge of 
     benefit to agriculture in the United States have never been 
     greater. Many of these new opportunities are the result of 
     amazing progress in the life sciences over recent decades, 
     attributable in large part to the provision made by the 
     Federal Government through the National Institutes of Health 
     and the National Science Foundation. New technologies and new 
     concepts have speeded advances in the fields of genetics, 
     cell and molecular biology, and proteomics. Much of this 
     scientific knowledge is ready to be mined for agriculture and 
     food sciences, through a sustained, disciplined research 
     effort at an institute dedicated to this research.
       (5) Publicly sponsored research is essential to continued 
     agricultural innovation to mitigate or harmonize the long-
     term effects of agriculture on the environment, to enhance 
     the long-term sustainability of agriculture, and to improve 
     the public health and welfare.
       (6) Competitive, peer-reviewed fundamental agricultural 
     research is best suited to promoting the fundamental research 
     from which breakthrough innovations that agriculture and 
     society require will come.
       (7) It is in the national interest to dedicate additional 
     funds on a long-term, ongoing basis to an institute dedicated 
     to funding competitive peer-reviewed grant programs that 
     support and promote the highest caliber of fundamental 
     agricultural research.
       (8) The Nation's capacity to be internationally competitive 
     in agriculture is threatened by inadequate investment in 
     research.
       (9) To be successful over the long term, grant-receiving 
     institutions must be adequately reimbursed for their costs if 
     they are to pursue the necessary agricultural research.
       (10) To meet these challenges, address these needs, and 
     provide for vitally needed agricultural innovation, it is in 
     the national interest to provide sufficient Federal funds 
     over the long term to fund a significant program of 
     fundamental agricultural research through an independent 
     institute.
       (b) Purposes.--The purposes of the Division established 
     under section 4(a) shall be to ensure that the technological 
     superiority of agriculture in the United States effectively 
     serves the people of the United States in the coming decades, 
     and to support and promote fundamental agricultural research 
     of the highest caliber in order to achieve goals, including 
     the following goals:
       (1) Increase the international competitiveness of United 
     States agriculture.
       (2) Develop foods that improve health and combat obesity.
       (3) Create new and more useful food, fiber, health, 
     medicinal, energy, environmental, and industrial products 
     from plants and animals.
       (4) Improve food safety and food security by protecting 
     plants and animals in the United States from insects, 
     diseases, and the threat of bioterrorism.
       (5) Enhance agricultural sustainability and improve the 
     environment.
       (6) Strengthen the economies of the Nation's rural 
     communities.
       (7) Decrease United States dependence on foreign sources of 
     petroleum by developing bio-based fuels and materials from 
     plants.
       (8) Strengthen national security by improving the 
     agricultural productivity of subsistence farmers in 
     developing countries to

[[Page S11643]]

     combat hunger and the political instability that it produces.
       (9) Assist in modernizing and revitalizing the Nation's 
     agricultural research facilities at institutions of higher 
     education, independent non-profit research institutions, and 
     consortia of such institutions, through capital investment.
       (10) Achieve such other goals and meet such other needs as 
     determined appropriate by the Foundation, the Director, or 
     the Secretary.

     SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF DIVISION.

       (a) Establishment.--There is established within the 
     National Science Foundation a Division of Food and 
     Agricultural Science. The Division shall consist of the 
     Council and be administered by a Director of Food and 
     Agricultural Science.
       (b) Reporting and Consultation.--The Director shall 
     coordinate the research agenda of the Division with the 
     Secretary.
       (c) Standing Council of Advisors.--
       (1) Establishment.--
       (A) In general.--There is established in the Division a 
     Standing Council of Advisors composed of 12 highly qualified 
     scientists who are not employed by the Federal Government and 
     12 stakeholders.
       (B) Scientists.--
       (i) Appointment.--The 12 scientist members of the Council 
     shall be appointed to 4-year staggered terms by the Director 
     of the National Science Foundation, with the consent of the 
     Director of Food and Agricultural Science.
       (ii) Qualifications.--The persons nominated for appointment 
     as scientist members of the Council shall be--

       (I) eminent in the fields of agricultural research, 
     science, or related appropriate fields; and
       (II) selected for appointment solely on the basis of 
     established records of distinguished service and to provide 
     representation of the views of agricultural research and 
     scientific leaders in all areas of the Nation.

       (C) Stakeholders.--
       (i) Appointment.--The 12 stakeholder members of the Council 
     shall be appointed to 4-year staggered terms by the 
     Secretary, with the consent of the Director.
       (ii) Qualifications.--The persons nominated for appointment 
     as stakeholder members of the Council shall--

       (I) include distinguished members of the public of the 
     United States, including representatives of farm 
     organizations and industry, and persons knowledgeable about 
     the environment, subsistence agriculture, energy, and human 
     health and disease; and
       (II) be selected for appointment so as to provide 
     representation of the views of stakeholder leaders in all 
     areas of the Nation.

       (2) Duties.--The Council shall assist the Director in 
     establishing the Division's research priorities, and in 
     reviewing, judging, and maintaining the relevance of the 
     programs funded by the Division. The Council shall review all 
     proposals approved by the scientific committees of the 
     Division to ensure that the purposes of this Act and the 
     needs of the Nation are being met.
       (3) Meetings.--
       (A) In general.--The Council shall hold periodic meetings 
     in order to--
       (i) provide an interface between scientists and 
     stakeholders; and
       (ii) ensure that the Division is linking national goals 
     with realistic scientific opportunities.
       (B) Timing.--The meetings shall be held at the call of the 
     Director, or at the call of the Secretary, but not less 
     frequently than annually.

     SEC. 5. FUNCTIONS OF DIVISION.

       (a) Competitive Research.--
       (1) In general.--The Director shall carry out the purposes 
     of this Act by awarding competitive peer-reviewed grants to 
     support and promote the very highest quality of fundamental 
     agricultural research.
       (2) Grant recipients.--The Director shall make grants to 
     fund research proposals submitted by--
       (A) individual scientists;
       (B) single and multi-institutional research centers; and
       (C) entities from the private and public sectors, including 
     researchers in the Department of Agriculture, the Foundation, 
     or other Federal agencies.
       (b) Complementary Research.--The research funded by the 
     Division shall--
       (1) supplement and enhance, not supplant, the existing 
     research programs of, or funded by, the Department of 
     Agriculture, the Foundation, and the National Institutes of 
     Health; and
       (2) seek to make existing research programs more relevant 
     to United States agriculture, consistent with the purposes of 
     this Act.
       (c) Grant-Awarding Only.--The Division's sole duty shall be 
     to award grants. The Division may not conduct fundamental 
     agricultural research or fundamental science, or operate any 
     laboratories or pilot plants.
       (d) Procedures.--The Director shall establish procedures 
     for the peer review, awarding, and administration of grants 
     under this Act, consistent with sound management and the 
     findings and purposes described in section 3.
                                 ______