Page 113 - Farm Bill Series_The 7 Things You Should Know

By Bill Tomson

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2017 – When President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act
into law in 1862, he set in motion the development of a system of land grant colleges and helped
create the foundation for U.S. agricultural research that’s endured until today.

That foundation is still strong, thanks to formula funding established by Congress over the years,
but there are new fears that the U.S. is no longer leading the way in innovation.

Part of the answer is money, says Tom Grumbly, president of the Supporters of Agriculture
Research (SoAR) Foundation. But perhaps an even bigger piece of the equation is finding the
right policy and management system to govern the complex web of government-funded research
programs. SoAR and its supporters are pushing for an overhaul in the next farm bill. They want a
power shift at USDA to elevate the department’s top scientist to a near-cabinet level position.
It’s a big request, but not unprecedented as
leaders throughout U.S. history have tried to
change policy and management to get past
immediate short-term issues and focus on the
long game of science.

“You cannot escape the responsibility of
tomorrow by evading it today,” Lincoln said,
way back when, and while he may have been
talking about abolishing slavery, he could just
as easily have been describing the need for
America to invest in agricultural research.

Fast forward 150 years and current House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway
expressed a similar sentiment in an interview with Agri-Pulse.

“Ag research is vitally important for the long term,” Conaway said. “We have immediate issues
and then we have long-term issues. It’s going to take the wisdom of Solomon to parcel out
whatever resources we get across that array of priorities. Scientific research in the ag
industry is vitally important … For my money, scientific research in ag repays the money
invested over the long haul.”

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