The U.S. long has been the undisputed world leader in agricultural production and innovation. Now alarms are sounding that U.S. investments in agricultural and natural resources research and education have declined over decades, with a corresponding slowdown in U.S. production growth, while U.S. competitors haven’t reduced their spending on agricultural Research & Development, and their agricultural productivity hasn’t slowed.
In December 2012, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology called for increased public investment in U.S. agricultural research to meet growing challenges.
Tuesday night at the UNL East Campus Union, Dr. Catherine Woteki, USDA under secretary for research, education and economics, and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman spoke about how to change where the U.S. stands in world leadership in agricultural production and natural resources research and education at a time markets signal the beginning of the end of more than a half-century of global agricultural abundance.
Glickman said research is key for the future of agriculture, like fighting plant and animal disease keeping up with nutrition changes and saving energy.
He added it’s time to put our money where our mouth is.
Former US Ag Secretary Glickman said, “We need to act at all levels, from the President to Congress to the US Department of Ag to states to universities, to private sector to companies all across the world, we need to make this the priority it needs to be.”
