On March 8, 2023, ASPB, together with 64 other organizations, signed a letter addressed to the Subcommittee on Agriculture to urge $50 million in funding for the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AgARDA).
“Advanced research agencies have been effectively deployed in defense, energy, and health to tackle the biggest challenges facing these industries in novel and groundbreaking ways,” the letter states. “By fully funding AgARDA, Congress can respond to our most pressing challenges: herbicide-resistant weeds, threats from plant and animal pests and diseases, rising costs and limited availability of inputs, inefficiencies in planting, harvesting and processing, and vulnerabilities to increasingly extreme weather.”
The letter notes that the high stakes of continued underfunding in agricultural research could have devastating effects on the U.S.’s position in global research.
“The U.S. food and agricultural enterprise is at a crossroad: continue to underinvest in research and innovation or support a robust, diverse public agricultural research portfolio that will transform our agricultural system and maintain U.S. global leadership. AgARDA can be a key component of that future, but we can’t wait, the time to invest is now.”
