Page 115 - Farm Bill Series_The 7 Things You Should Know

The primary objective behind NIFA – essentially a restructuring of the Cooperative State,
Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) – was to ensure “the technological
superiority of American agriculture.” NIFA was a good and essential part of what scientists
like Danforth believed to be the response to “an impending crisis in the food, agricultural,
and natural resource systems of the United States.”

But Goldberg said he was certain more was needed. On the one hand, he had the NIFA report, on
the other hand he had two competitive-grant programs that were very similar but also in conflict
with each other.

“When you’re going through the process, constituents are coming through and asking for very
targeted, individual research authorizations,” Goldberg recalled. “To the extent that anybody
went beyond just the parochial interests, it was usually just simply asking for more money.”
There was a constituency that favored the grants in the Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food
Systems (IFAFS) and there were those who favored grants in the National Research Initiative
(NRI), but Goldberg said the distinctions were minor, and he came up with the idea to combine
the two.

He went to his boss at the time – Rep. Bob Goodlatte – and pitched the idea for the Agriculture
and Food Research Initiative, now well-known by the acronym AFRI. Goodlatte, a Virginia
Republican, said he liked it and told Goldberg to run with it.

“When we had the individual programs, we were thinning the resources, trying to push for
funding,” Goldberg said, explaining one rationale behind the combination.

The idea was initially a hit with other House and Senate staffers and gained enthusiastic support
from the likes of Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. Collin Peterson. So AFRI was created, tucked into
NIFA and Title VII of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008.

And AFRI has been the star jewel of ag research ever since.

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