Senate Ag Committee Research Hearing Final in Roberts-Era
WASHINGTON, DC – On Wednesday, the Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing on Agricultural Research in what is most likely, the final hearing in a 40-year Congressional career for Senator Pat Roberts. “During my time in public service, the United States has witnessed one of its greatest untold success stories” Roberts explained, “federal policies that have fostered a scale and efficiency of the U.S. agriculture system that would have been unimaginable to our predecessors.” Agriculture research drives change, efficiencies, and productivity and is the foundation that supports a “modern food system miracle”. Roberts also spoke about how public funding of agricultural research has grown over the past 40 years and has fostered continuous improvement in research, science, and new technologies like biotechnology. In Fiscal Year 1981, U.S. agricultural research totaled $1.4 billion in public funding, but by 2015, that annual investment had more than tripled to more than $4.5 billion. Even more impressive, Roberts said, was that private sector investment in food and ag research increased over 660 percent over that same period – from $1.6 billion to more than $12 billion per year.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)