ASPB President’s Update: Advocacy—It’s Never Been More Important to Keep Sharing What it Means to do Plant Science

Advocate: a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy

 

Science Needs Advocates! 

Now more than ever we each need to determine why, when, where, and how to share our experience and enthusiasm for science. ASPB is here to help you in being a science advocate. This post will highlight a few ways that scientists can make a difference. I also invite others to share their own ideas in the Comment section to help everyone consider how advocacy can be part of their science experience.

ASPB Science Policy Committee

One of the jobs of the immediate Past President of ASPB is to serve on the Science Policy Committee (SPC). It makes a lot of sense that each of our elected presidents spends the last year of their three-year leadership experience working on science advocacy at the congressional level. We have just been deeply involved in the workings of the society, so it is good to look for ways to connect our mission to government activities. The SPC is made of members from all over the US, including early career representatives, and it liaises constantly with staff and consultants from Lewis-Burke Associates (LBA). The SPC meets every month to discuss science-related issues at the federal level. The LBA team regularly combs through materials coming from all branches of our government and distills it into reports that help the SPC understand how policy will impact ASPB members. Together the committee works on response papers, expert statements, and direct interactions with congressional staff. LBA trains and supports SPC members in meeting with congressional staffers to discuss how our work is impacted by federal policies. They recently began working with additional ASPB members to arrange and support more direct engagement with the staff of impactful committees in Congress.

My experience on the SPC has helped me better appreciate the complexity of federal funding and the many people involved in decision making. Recently, I had meetings with staff members from the office of one of my New Jersey Senators and from three  House of Representatives’ offices. My LBA coach helped me think about specific policy and budget issues that were likely to be high priorities for each office, and they emphasized the importance of making things personal. I was able to tell my story of training scientists at a primarily undergraduate institution and witnessing changes in higher education. I helped the congressional staffers understand how federal funding is used for science discovery and science training at the undergraduate level, and I connected undergraduate research to workforce development and innovation in my state. These congressional staffers expressed nothing but gratitude to get a better understanding of what happens at one of their state colleges, something that directly impacts their constituents. I got the sense that each office was trying to integrate many perspectives from across their constituency. 

Advocacy Efforts are Wide Ranging

Scheduling a personal meeting with a congressional staff person takes planning and persistence, but there are other ways to advocate for science. You might consider adding your support to petitions and letters that are in line with your understanding of how to do science. For example, my friends and colleagues have recently been talking about signing on to The Bethesda Declaration from Stand Up for Science to advocate for academic freedom and excellence in science. You might write a letter to your local newspaper to explain how you do your job, why it is important, and how policy changes impact your work. A group of early career scientists from across the US is working on just such an effort to help people communicate their perspective to the local press. The McClintock Letters initiative is doing a big push to increase awareness of science in connection to the mid-June birth date of plant scientist Barbara McClintock. 

You can also be a science advocate within your daily sphere of influence. I regularly develop opportunities to connect current affairs with what I am teaching. When recent students studied examples of crop genetic research in other countries, I talked to them about how some of the biotech came from innovations in US labs. We discussed the importance of shared science advances and on-going multi-country efforts to solve global problems and how recent events are making that work harder. Similarly, I regularly make an effort to talk about my work with neighbors. It is a lot of fun to engage them in a conversation about plant stress and the ongoing research that aims to make sure we have food plants that can thrive in adverse conditions. The more I practice dropping my science perspective into daily conversations, the easier it is to help other people see how science connects to what they care about. Occasionally, someone wants to go a little deeper to think about some of the more difficult issues in US science policy right now. 

If you are attending the Plant Biology 2025 meeting in Milwaukee next month, consider stopping by the ASPB booth to write letters to your elected representatives to Congress using templates that are available on ASPB’s “Become an Advocate” webpage. Members of the SPC will be on hand to answer questions and help out as needed, and if you are motivated to be one of those who goes a little deeper, we plan to recruit plant biology attendees who are willing to meet directly with Hill staff, as I have done. Look for me at the ASPB booth if you want to talk more about my experience with science advocacy.

What Issues and Efforts Matter Most to You?

There are so many ways to be a plant scientist, and ASPB is working to support this community as broadly as possible. Sharing your story helps strengthen our community by celebrating the numerous perspectives on why plant science matters and how we do plant science. So, why, when, where, and how do you advocate for science? Please consider adding ideas and examples in the Comment section for this post. 

Keep up your important work!!