FACILITIES TASK FORCE HOLDS INITIAL MEETING IN AMES, IA


                                            Release No. 0176.97
                                                               
                                   Steve Teasley (202) 720-8319
                                         steve.teasley@usda.gov
                                     Maria Bynum (202) 720-5192
                                           maria.bynum@usda.gov

FACILITIES TASK FORCE HOLDS INITIAL MEETING IN AMES, IA

     WASHINGTON, May 28, 1997--The U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Strategic Planning Task Force will begin its review of the nation's
federally-funded agricultural research facilities at its initial meeting May
28-30 in Ames, IA.

     The 15-member task force, appointed in March by Agriculture Secretary
Dan Glickman, is meeting at the Holiday Inn-Gateway Center to discuss its
mission, U.S. research infrastructure status, and future working group
assignments.  Pat Swan, vice provost for research, Iowa State University,
will speak the first day on "The Land Grant University Role in Agriculture
Research."  The meeting will conclude with a tour of area agricultural
research facilities.

     Created under the 1996 Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform
(FAIR) Act, the task force will have two years to provide a 10-year
strategic plan, which will recommend to the secretary of agriculture and
Congress priorities for "development, modernization, construction,
consolidation, and closure" of existing and proposed agricultural research
facilities whose construction is in-whole or part federally-financed.

     "Legislation creating the task force stresses the importance of our
maintaining a comprehensive research capacity," said Catherine E. Woteki,
USDA's Acting Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics. "In
order to do that in an era of new, emerging research priorities and in the
face of federal downsizing efforts, we need a thorough evaluation of our
research network."

     USDA's Agricultural Research Service operates 104 research locations
in the U.S. and abroad.  In addition, USDA's Forest Service research
capacity includes seven Forest Experiment Stations, a Forest Products
Laboratory, the International Institute of Tropical Forestry, and research
work units at 67 project locations.

     Task force members include representatives from land grant and other
university and college agricultural, environmental, veterinary, and forestry
departments; farmers and ranchers, commodity organizations,and state
departments of agriculture; nonprofit agriculture and research
organizations; and the private sector.

     Glickman appointed members from a list of recommended candidates
provided by USDA's National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and
Economics Advisory Board.

     Bruce Andrews, director, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Portland,
is chair.  Karl Stauber, president of the Northwest Area Foundation, St.
Paul, and former USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education, and
Economics, is vice chair.

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          USDA STRATEGIC PLANNING TASK FORCE MEMBERS

     Jose Amador, center director, Agriculture Research and Extension
Service, Texas A&M University, Weslaco, TX; Bruce Andrews, director, Oregon
Department of Agriculture, Portland, OR; Alan Bergman, president, North
Dakota Farmers Union, Jamestown, ND; Al Clausi, retired, senior vice
president and chief research officer, General Foods, Greenwich, CT.

     John Gordon, professor and dean emeritus, Forestry and Environmental
Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT; Bob Guernsey, farmer, Lebanon, IN;
Ted Hullar, professor for environmental toxicology, University of California
at Davis; Andrew Jordan, director, National Cotton Council, Memphis, TN; 
Carol Ann Keiser, owner/manager, Loveless Cattle Co., Carlinville, IL.

     Max Lennon, president, Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, NC; Joseph
McDonald, Salish Kootanei College, Pablo, MT; Kathleen Merrigan, Henry A.
Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture, Beltsville, MD; Richard Ross,
dean, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, IA; Karl
Stauber, president, Northwest Area Foundation, St. Paul, MN;  Jim Wilder,
executive vice president, North Carolina Soybean Producers Association,
Raleigh, NC.

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