Tuesday, during a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry Committee hearing titled, "Farm Bill 2023: Research Programs," U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) questioned U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics and Chief Scientist, Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young on USDA's investments in research, innovation, and education. Brown shared the concerns brought to him by the Ohio land grant research community, which includes the Ohio State University.
"When you think about innovation and agriculture, you think from Henry Wallace to researchers at our land grant universities, who have made American farmers the most productive in the world. Every dollar invested in agriculture research has a $20 return," said Brown. "China understands this. They've quintupled their public investment in ag research -- investing roughly double what the U.S. does."
Jacobs-Young shared her concerns about the U.S. lagging behind China and Brazil when it comes to public investments in agriculture.
"You know, I'm concerned about the level of investment when we look at being on par with our scientific colleagues here domestically and globally. When we look at some of the investments in ag research if we were on par- so what you already shared and what I already shared- if we could do that, what we have, imagine what we could accomplish if we were on par with our scientific colleagues both here in the U.S. and around the world," said Jacobs-Young.
Brown also asked Jacobs-Young about the 1890 network, a land-grant system of historically Black colleges and universities, consists of 19 schools, including Central State University in Wilberforce and its ability to attract and retain students interested in food and agriculture sciences. Brown also asked how the Scholarships for Students at 1890 Institutions program, created and funded in the 2018 Farm Bill, can be strengthened in the next farm bill.
"I'll tell you from my perspective, as an undersecretary and as past administrator, how important it is for those types of programs to help us get the diversity of students into our halls, into our laboratories. And when they have that type of support it takes a stress off to be able to encourage them. It's one thing to attract students to the programs. It's a whole different topic to retain, and I think that those scholarships -- both the 1890 scholars, we look at the Thurgood Marshall scholars, the HACU scholars, our 1994 scholars- all those programs are critically important to supporting those students to be able to know what's possible" said Jacobs-Young.
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