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30 May 2018

In This Issue:

Policy News

International Corner

Research, Education, Extension Funding Opportunities

Science News

Policy News

The House rejected a $867 billion farm bill on May 18 — after spending days negotiating with key conservatives in an attempt to pass the bill without the support of Democrats. The vote was 198-213. Every Democrat voted against the measure, as did 30 Republicans. Many of the GOP lawmakers are members of the House Freedom Caucus and voted no after failing to get concessions on spending and a future vote on immigration in exchange for their support. The future of the bill is uncertain. Republican leaders are discussing ways to bring it up again. A revote could hinge on whether GOP leaders agree to a vote on a controversial immigration bill that many Republican moderates oppose. Read the full article.

Following overall good news for research from House appropriators, the Senate began moving several of its research funding bills last week. Once again the DOE Office of Science was the big winner with the Senate providing $6.65 billion – an increase of $390 million over the FY2018 level. The Senate also provided a $22 million boost to ARPA-E, bringing its funding to $375 million. USDA research programs, however, did not fare quite as well. Despite claims from Senate Agriculture Appropriations Chairman, Sen. John Hoeven, that the bill “places significant emphasis on agricultural research” overall USDA research funding was cut by almost $300 million. The AFRI program saw an increase of only $5 million, decidedly lower than the steady increases of $25 million the program had received in recent years. See more budget details on the Budget and Appropriations webpage.

ASA, CSSA, and SSSA as part of the Coalition for National Science Funding, sent a letter to House Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee members thanking them for their commitment to federally-funded research by providing the National Science Foundation with $8.175 million in its FY 2019 spending bill. That funding level represented a 5% funding increase for NSF, which the Coalition had requested for many years. The letter also asked that the final NSF funding bill include an increase for the Education and Human Resources Directorate within NSF, which was flat funded. Read the letter here.

President Donald Trump announced today that he will nominate a senior official at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) technology commercialization program, and a former member of the White House staff under President Barack Obama, to lead the department’s $6 billion Office of Science. The office is the nation’s leading funder of the physical sciences, and supports a fleet of facilities used extensively by academic and commercial researchers. Fall, who earned a doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, is currently principal deputy director of DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which helps transform promising research findings into commercial products. Read the full article.

Foods that contains genetically modified ingredients will soon have a special label. This is the product of a decades-long fight between anti-GMO campaigners and Big Agriculture companies, which left neither side completely satisfied. After Congress passed a bill in 2016 requiring labels on foods containing GMO ingredients, the USDA launched a long process to figure out the specifics. When it asked for feedback, it received 112,000 responses from consumers, farmers and manufacturers, among others. The result? There are a few options, and they look kind of like the labels you'd see on health food. They're brightly colored, with greens and blues and yellows. They feature the letters B-E. Below that, some of them have a curved line. Read the full article.

Jim Bridenstine the Trump administration’s newly installed NASA head, said on Wednesday that he now believes human activity is the main cause of climate change. Bridenstine, speaking at a Senate Appropriations Committee subpanel's hearing, said his views on climate change have changed from his previous position that it is unclear how much humans contribute. NASA is one of the primary agencies focused on climate change in the federal government. Its satellites and other equipment closely track the temperatures of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere, as well as atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and other important measures. Bridenstine’s climate skepticism was one of the chief reasons Democrats opposed his nomination to lead NASA and sought to block his confirmation to the post. Read the full article.

International Corner

Reports from China, India, Southeast Asia, and Africa suggest that average rice yield increases of 20 to 50 percent are regularly being achieved by farmers adopting an unconventional method of cultivation, which aims to stimulate the root system of plants. “System of rice intensification” (SRI) involves the careful spacing of fewer but younger plants, keeping the topsoil around the plants well-aerated by weeding, using manure and avoiding flooding. In 2017, SRI was endorsed by the science journal Nature and the United Nations, and the World Bank has begun to promote it in India and Egypt. Read the full article.

France is open to phasing out common weedkiller glyphosate, the government said, following complaints from farmers worried about a potential imminent ban. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe reiterated Paris would vote against the European Commission’s proposal to extend for 10 years the license for glyphosate, which is used in Monsanto’s Roundup, citing uncertainty about its safety. A vote is due to take place by the end of the year. However, Philippe said the French government had asked the farm and environment ministries to propose by the end of the year “a plan to move away from glyphosate in light of the current research and available alternatives for farmers,” signaling a readiness to accept a gradual phasing out. Read the full article.

Research, Education, Extension Funding Opportunities

This project is seeking a scientific partner to help Culinaria understand and communicate the potential impacts of lead contamination on the local food system. The scientist would review existing literature and data on water contamination and food supplies, perform modeling of contaminants in water and soil, assist in determining the methodology for performing additional sampling to determine potential health impacts, and work with local graduate students to conduct any necessary sampling. Deadline, spring 2018. Read the full announcement.

The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) seeks expert reviewers from academia, federal and state governments, industry, commodity groups, professional organizations, and other stakeholder groups to evaluate research proposals submitted in response to calls for proposals within our Challenge Areas: 1) Forging the Innovation Pathway to Sustainability, 2) Food Waste and Loss, 3) Increasing the Food System’s Capacity to Cope with Water Scarcity, 4) Protein, 5) Urban Food Systems, 6) Making “My Plate” Your Plate, and 7)Healthy Soils, Thriving Farms. Read the full announcement.

Northeast SARE's Research and Education Grant program funds projects that result in gains in farmer knowledge and skills applied to make changes that lead to greater sustainability throughout the Northeast region. Projects may be submitted with or without an applied research component, but all projects must have an outcome-based education program for farmers. Pre-proposal deadline, July 10. Read the full announcement.

The Professional Development grant program funds projects that train agricultural service providers such as Cooperative Extension, state department of agriculture personnel, crop consultants, veterinarians, farm advisors with private businesses, and nonprofit organizations about sustainable practices and approaches so that they, in turn, can educate farmers. Pre-proposal deadline, July 10. Read the full announcement.

The AFRI Foundational and Applied Science Program supports grants in six AFRI priority areas to advance knowledge in both fundamental and applied sciences important to agriculture. The six priority areas are: Plant Health and Production and Plant Products; Animal Health and Production and Animal Products; Food Safety, Nutrition, and Health; Bioenergy, Natural Resources, and Environment; Agriculture Systems and Technology; and Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities. Research-only, extension-only, and integrated research, education and/or extension projects are solicited in this Request for Applications (RFA). Letter of intent deadline varies by program. Read the full announcement.

We are facing one of the biggest challenges of our time: How will we feed ten billion people by 2050? We need the best and brightest scientists working on solutions to help us make nutritious food accessible to all. FFAR is sponsoring a new competition led by the XPRIZE Foundation to address food systems, nutrition, and environmental stewardship in agriculture. The 2018 Visioneering Prize-Design Challenge will give teams across the world a chance to weigh in on approaches to sustainably feeding the world's growing population. The XPRIZE Foundation is organizing the competition in partnership with HeroX to crowdsource innovative ideas to compete for cash prizes, a trip to the Visioneering 2018 event, and the chance to help develop the next XPRIZE. Deadline, July 23. Read the full announcement.

Science News

Smack at the center of the debate over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their role in developing countries are large corporations. A major aim of these corporations is to improve the profitability of farmers in developing countries. They also consider GMOs to be one of many tools needed to reduce agricultural waste and improve yield. Read the full article.

The Soil Health Institute seeks submissions for Poster Presentations at its 3rd Annual Meeting to be held August 1-3, 2018 in Albuquerque, NM. Poster presentations must be relevant to soil health. Applications due June 1. Read the full announcement.

Taking a road trip through an agricultural landscape, the average person may feel the landscape is monotonous, offering views of acre after acre of corn and soybeans or fields of wheat. However, we know the reality is that farmers are working on a heterogeneous landscape. Some areas are less productive due to drought, some more likely to flood, and sometimes historical use or soil type can affect today’s yield. Modern farming techniques can identify these less productive acres, and farmers may put more resources into these areas (e.g., fertilizer or irrigation) to try to maximize production. Producing food and feed is important, and many would prefer to keep something growing on the land rather than establishing commercial or residential buildings. However, if pockets of less productive land are a sink of resources, there may be potential to utilize them in other ways. Read the full article.

Montanans can now turn to their phones for help in identifying weeds, insects and crop diseases. A new phone app provides an additional tool to Montanans who might otherwise text, email or send samples through the mail to the Schutter Diagnostic Lab at Montana State University. Farmers who use the app, for example, could take a digital photo of an abnormal wheat stem, then upload the photo and fill out a form with their questions, extra details and contact information. The app will direct the query to the proper expert to determine the cause and suggest possible remedies for the problem. Burrows said the recommendations are responsive to client needs and use the principles of integrated pest management. Read the full article.

In a grand experiment, California switched on a fleet of high-tech greenhouse gas removal machines last month. Funded by the state’s cap-and-trade program, they’re designed to reverse climate change by sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. These wonderfully complex machines are more high-tech than anything humans have designed. They’re called plants. For years people have excitedly discussed the possibility of stashing carbon in the soil while growing food. Now, for the first time, California is using cap-and-trade money to pay farmers to do it on a large scale. It’s called the California Healthy Soils Initiative. Read the full article.

The cacao tree, which grows in tropical regions, produces the cocoa beans that are the raw material of chocolate. Reliable productivity from cacao plants is essential to the multibillion-dollar chocolate industry, the economies of producing countries and the livelihoods of millions of smallholder cacao farmers. Each year, several plant diseases severely limit global production, with 20-30 percent of cocoa pods destroyed preharvest, but development of disease-resistant varieties has been slowed by the need for sources of genetic resistance and the long generation time of cacao trees. Researchers at Penn State are using the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to breed cacao trees that exhibit desirable traits such as enhanced resistance to diseases. Read the full article.

The soil-water retention curve is essential for understanding and modeling water and solute transport in the vadose zone and water availability for plants. However, measuring the soil-water retention curve is highly time-consuming and a fast and accurate method to predict it is needed. In an upcoming issue of the Vadose Zone Journal, researchers developed models to predict the soil-water retention curve using visible−near infrared spectroscopy and a soil fines (soil clay-size fraction and organic matter) based pedotransfer function, covering a wide range of soil texture, from sandy to loamy soils, and organic matter contents. Read the full article.

Human-caused greenhouse gas emissions threaten to make rice less nutritious, scientists said in a study released recently, raising a worrying possibility about the staple food item for billions of humans. Rice contains lower levels of key vitamins when grown amid high concentrations of carbon dioxide, the most common of the greenhouse gases driving climate change. The study found that at the high concentrations, the crop’s content of the vitamins B1, B2, B5, and B9 all declined, including by as much as 30 percent for B9 (folate). The research also confirmed previously discovered declines in protein, iron and zinc. Read the full article.

Sources: USDA; NSF; NPR; ScienceInsider; The Hill; Grist; MSU News; PSU News; Washington Post; Devex; Soil Health Institute; Reuters; Huffington Post;

Vision: The Societies Washington, DC Science Policy Office (SPO) will advocate the importance and value of the agronomic, crop and soil sciences in developing national science policy and ensuring the necessary public-sector investment in the continued health of the environment for the well being of humanity. The SPO will assimilate, interpret, and disseminate in a timely manner to Society members information about relevant agricultural, natural resources and environmental legislation, rules and regulations under consideration by Congress and the Administration.

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