SoAR’s Retaking The Field report profiled Lisa Schulte-Moore of Iowa State University who used a USDA AFRI grant to show how strips of native prairie protects soil and water. As a result, The Washington Post featured Dr. Schulte-Moore and her team’s cutting-edge work.
Read Darryl Fears piece: “Iowa farmers ripped out prairie; now some hope it can save them” at http://wpo.st/te-r1.
The Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR) Foundation today announce the formation of its Scientific Advisory Committee, an eight-member panel led by Vicki Chandler, PhD, Dean of the College of Natural Sciences at the Minerva Schools at KGI. The Committee’s primary mission is to strengthen agricultural research and raise its profile within the broader science community. Special focus will be placed on the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program, the nation’s primary source of competitively awarded funding within the US Department of Agriculture.
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The agriculture sector is critical to the overall U.S. economy, accounting for nearly $1 trillion of our gross domestic product (GDP) and one in 10 jobs. Ag R&D has an estimated return on investment of 20 to 1. But the federal government’s support for the scientific innovation needed by this sector has run dry, and our farmers have lost too much ground to overseas competitors.
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Farm science advocates had some success this year in boosting federal funding for the discipline
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