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Abstracts Home | Posters
 Change and the need for publically funded research


One of the underappreciated successes of the 20th century has been how publically funded agricultural science has been a transformational driver of food as well as environmental and agricultural security. From 1948 to 2008, U.S. agricultural productivity increased by 158%, gains largely attributed to public research. Agricultural economists have estimated rates of return at 40-60% for every dollar invested in public agricultural research or in basic or applied science. As we face the 21st century, the need for such research has never been greater. Our commitment to provide, as a nation, the best science, the best technology to meet the challenge of food security and sustainability must be maintained. And yet, just the opposite has occurred, with our commitment to public investment in agricultural research plummeting from 4% annual growth in the 1970s, to 0.2% in the 2000s.

As our commitment to agricultural research has waned, threats to food security have intensified. In the "global village" of the twenty-first century we are asking agricultural research to provide more cereals for bio-fuel, more grains for meat, and more food for the additional 2 billion new people expected by 2050. And as we ask more, we are providing less of everything except uncertainty; climate uncertainty related to droughts and floods, uncertainty with respect to temperatures, uncertainty with respect to new diseases and pests.

Finding common ground, particularly in today's fractious political climate, is difficult; but all political parties should recognize that delegitimizing science is the wrong approach; indeed, there is much that publically funded science and technology can still do, from traditional agronomic research, to new cell phone apps that help Nebraska farmers irrigate efficiently. I wish that the collaborative efforts between USDA and University of Maryland scientists will meet with success; but I also hope that everyone outside of the symposium can recognize one unassailable fact: that we, as a nation, must renew our pledge to publically fund the essential science needed to provide the most basic of human needs, freedom from hunger.

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