As budget development continues, ASPB recently joined with other research institutions, scientific societies, and agricultural stakeholders in a letter to House and Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Members requesting “no less than $500 million for the USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) in Fiscal Year 2026.” As a key grant program of the US Department … Read more
On February 4, 2025, ASPB joined more than 40 organizations in urging Congress to increase crucial US Department of Agriculture (USDA) program funding in Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26). In a letter to Congressional leadership, ASPB and others outline how USDA programs “support America’s farmers, improve the security of our food supply, and restore our nation’s … Read more
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) released a request for applications (RFA) for the fiscal year (FY) 2022 Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative (AG2PI). AG2PI aims to advance scientific understanding of genomes and phenomes of plants and animals of significance to American agriculture. This is the second RFA … Read more
On May 18, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) released the final version of the agency’s update to the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology (Coordinated Framework). APHIS initially released a proposed rule in 2019, but withdrew it following significant stakeholder comments. This revision, called … Read more
On November 28th, the Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing to consider the nomination of Dr. Scott Hutchins as U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics (REE), which also serves as USDA Chief Scientist. Hutchins, the former global leader of Corteva AgriScience, is an entomologist by training and … Read more
