Science Policy Report

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20 June 2012

In This Issue:

International Corner

Research, Education, Extension Funding Opportunities

Conferences, Meetings and Reports

Congressional/Administration News

International Corner

On June 14, the White House announced a new “U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa”.  The new strategy sets forth four strategic objectives including: strengthen democratic institutions, spur economic growth, trade, and investment, advance peace and security, and promote opportunity and development. Read more here

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is seeking public comments on a June 1202 draft report, titled "State of the art on the initiatives and activities relevant to risk assessment and risk management of nanotechnologies in the food and agriculture sectors". The report reviews national and international activities on the risk analysis of nanomaterials in the food and agriculture sectors that have been carried out since the 2009 FAO/WHO expert meeting. Deadline 30 November. Read the full draft  

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a study on “energy-smart” food production and use ahead of the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development.  FAO reports that agriculture’s heavy dependence on fossil fuels is undermining the sector’s ability to feed the world, perpetuating poverty and undermining efforts to build a more sustainable world economy. The study further concludes that the world’s food production systems consume 30 percent of all available energy and most of that energy consumption (70%) happens after food leaves farms, as it is transported, processed, packed, shipped, stored, marketed and prepared. Read more here

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published a report titled: “Sustainable Agricultural Productivity Growth and Bridging the Gap for Small-Family Farms” which examines practical actions that could be undertaken to sustainably improve agricultural productivity growth, particularly for small family farms. The organizations involved believe that a successful strategy for sustainable agricultural productivity growth will require significant improvements in the investment climate in many countries, in agricultural innovation systems as well as farming practices, in the management of natural resources, and in policies and efforts that work to close the productivity gap of small family farms. Read the full report here

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has found that resource conservation technologies in agriculture could potentially halve the staggering increases in food prices in the face of climate change.  IFPRI is scheduled to release key findings on agriculture and soil degradation at this month's Rio+20 conference on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro. “I think that we're at a point where it will be very good to see how these resource-conserving technologies can perform to help solve food insecurity issues," noted Mark Rosegrant, director of environment and production and project leader for IFPRI's "How to Achieve Food Security in a World of Growing Scarcity" program.  IFPRI researchers have found that integrated soil fertility management, a term for a variety of nonchemical practices that raise the nutrient levels of soils, could raise maize output by up to 50 percent, rice output by 30 percent and wheat output by 20 percent. Read more here

The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) released a report titled “Immigration Policy and Its Possible Effects on U.S. Agriculture” which concludes that "the long run results from the decreased unauthorized labor supply scenario show a reduction in the labor supply to agriculture with effects on agricultural output and exports that are opposite in sign from the increased farm labor supply scenario and larger in magnitude. Fruit, tree nuts, vegetables, and nursery production are again among the most affected sectors but with long run relative declines of 2.0 to 5.4 percent in output and 2.5 to 9.3 percent in exports.” The article notes that "[i]n the long term, overall gross national product accruing to U.S.-born and foreign-born, permanent residents would fall by about 1 percent, compared with the base forecast.” Read more here

Research, Education, Extension Funding Opportunities

The Crawford Fund Fellowship has been set up to provide further training for an agricultural scientist and provides an opportunity to spend a period of focused study and training in Australia. Candidates should be below the age of 35 and from a selected group of developing countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, East Timor, Fiji, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vanuatu or Vietnam).  The training will take place at an Australian institution and will emphasize the application of knowledge to increase agricultural production in the Fellow's home country. Deadline 29 June. Read full announcement here

USAID seeks to award a five-year Leader with Associates (LWA) Cooperative Agreement which includes responsibility for designing and implementing a worldwide program of knowledge management and agricultural education and training services development activities intended to provide results in multiple countries. The nature of the program lends itself to a consortium approach involving multiple universities with experience with agricultural extension services in conjunction with multiple NGO and/or for-profit entities with experience implementing international rural development field programs.  USAID intends to award a five-year Leader Award for up to $6,250,000 with up to 25 percent of this from mission and other office buy-ins. Deadline 17 July. Read the full announcement here

The North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NCR-SARE) Graduate Student Grant Program has decided to adopt a later timeline with a due date of late May.   This timeline will allow first year students to complete most of their first year of coursework, before developing a proposal.  Potential applicants can expect to see the 2013 Call for Proposals in March, 2013. Read the full announcement here.

NIFA announces the availability of grant funds and requests applications for the Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate and Postdoctoral Fellowship (NNF) Grants Program for fiscal year FY-2012 to provide traineeship programs to eligible institutions to develop scientific and professional expertise in the food and agricultural sciences, through graduate level training programs. The amount available for support of this program in FY 2012 is approximately $3.24 million.  In addition, NIFA requests stakeholder input from any interested party for use in the development of the next RFA for this program. Deadline 15 August. Read the full announcement here

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) invites science-based small business firms to submit research applications under a program titled “Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR).” Firms with strong scientific research capabilities in any of the topic areas are encouraged to participate. USDA seeks to support high-quality research or research and development applications containing advanced concepts related to important scientific problems and opportunities that could lead to significant public benefit.  The objectives of the program include: stimulating technological innovation in the private sector, strengthening the role of small businesses in meeting Federal research and development needs, increasing private sector commercialization of innovations derived from USDA-supported research, and development efforts and fostering and encouraging participation by women-owned and socially and economically disadvantaged small business firms in technological innovation. Deadline 6 September. Read full announcement here.

Conferences, Meetings and Reports

For the last 20 months, USGS has been involved in a strategic planning exercise to develop plans for seven technical mission areas: Climate and Land Use Change, Core Science Systems, Ecosystems, Energy and Minerals, Environmental Health, Natural Hazards, and Water – these plans are now available for public review and comment. Deadline 1 August. Read more here

On June 12, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered the World Food Prize keynote address and named Dr. Hillel as the 2012 World Food Prize recipient at a ceremony in Washington D.C.   Following his selection, Dr. Hillel released this statement from Zikhron Ya'akov, Israel:  "My joy and gratitude at being granted the World Food Prize this year is tempered by the realization that the work this award recognizes is far from complete. The task of improving the sustainable management of the Earth's finite and vulnerable soil, water, and energy resources for the benefit of humanity while sustaining the natural biotic community and its overall environmental integrity is an ongoing and increasingly urgent challenge for our generation and for future generations. Meeting this challenge will require enhanced global cooperation and integrated scientific research. It is a task, indeed a collective responsibility, that we cannot shirk and must indeed broaden and intensify."  Dr. Hillel will formally receive the $250,000 World Food Prize award at the 26th Annual Laureate Ceremony at the Iowa State Capitol on October 18, 2012. Read more here

On June 15, 2012, Federal agencies released their annual Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Sustainability and Energy Scorecards. These scorecards help agencies identify, target, and track the best opportunities in clean energy and hold agencies accountable for meeting annual energy, water, pollution, and waste reduction targets. Based on scorecard benchmarks, each agency will update its annual Sustainability Plan to expand on successes and address areas needing improvement.  OMB has scored agencies on their energy and sustainability efforts for several years, but this is just the second year the scores have been made public as a result of a new sustainability push by the Obama administration. Read the reports here.

Congressional/Administration News

With the support of Senator Shelby, ASA, CSSA, SSSA, and other members of the STEM Education Coalition successfully advocated the Senate Appropriations Committee to restore $51 million in funding for the Department of Education’s Math and Science Partnership, which had been earlier been cut from the program by the Labor, HHS, Education Subcommittee. Read STEM Education Coalition Press Release here and Read Sen. Shelby’s press release

On June 13, 2012, ASA, CSSA, and SSSA joined with other scientific societies in the Coalition for National Science Funding in a letter to the U.S. Senate.  The coalition urged senators "to reject attempts to reduce funding for NSF ... [and] stand in strong opposition to legislative attempts to micromanage NSF and undermine the merit review process by singling out specific programs for elimination as recently occurred in the House." Read the letter here.

The White House released a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the 2012 Farm Bill and notes that "[t]he new farm bill should promote rural development, preserve a farm safety net, maintain strong nutrition programs, enhance conservation, honor our World Trade Organization commitments, and advance agricultural research." Read the full statement here.

Jeffrey Zients, Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Dr. John Holdren, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a memorandum on June 6 to the heads of all executive departments and agencies outlining the Administration’s science and technology priorities for formulating the FY-2014 Budget.  OSTP encourages federal agencies to identify and pursue “Grand Challenges” – ambitious goals that require advances in science, technology and innovation to achieve.  Specific priorities include advanced manufacturing, clean energy, global climate change, research and development, nanotechnology, biological innovation, and STEM education. Read the full memo here

The House of Representatives approved its version of the FY 2013 Energy and Water spending bill, which mainly deals with Department of Energy (DOE) funding along with a handful of other agencies, on a 255-165 vote. According to AAAS estimates, the bill would provide approximately $11 billion for DOE R&D in FY 2013, essentially flat from FY 2012 and $856 million, or 7.2 percent, below the President's request. Overall R&D in the Department's energy technology programs would be slashed by 11.6 percent, or $264 million, though this is almost entirely due to funding cuts for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and low-carbon innovation. In very few cases would R&D funding in the House bill meet or exceed the President's request. Read AAAS coverage here

The Obama administration proposed a new rule to accelerate environmental reviews of projects designed to restore national forests and streams. The new categorical exclusions would cover projects that remove, replace, or modify water control structures to restore flows into natural channels and floodplains; remove debris and sediment after natural or human-caused events including floods, hurricanes, and tornados; or, restore nonsystem roads and trails to more natural conditions in order to stabilize habitat.  The agency is accepting public comments on the rule until Aug. 13. Read the rule here

Congresswoman Noem recently introduced the Protect our Prairies Act (H.R. 5879), bipartisan legislation introduced with Congressman Tim Walz of Minnesota that promotes conservation of habitat that support pheasants, ducks and other game species critical to the hunting industry.  The legislation would reduce crop insurance assistance for crops grown on native sod and grasslands converted to cropland for the first four years. Noem notes that the Protect our Prairies Act would save taxpayers nearly $200 million over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Read coverage here

Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet introduced amendments to the 2012 Farm Bill to increase funding to meet the needs for bark-beetle mitigation efforts in the West.  The 2012 Farm Bill currently sets aside $100 million for beetle-mitigation efforts.  The bipartisan amendment Udall offered with Senators Bennet, John Thune (R-SD) and Max Baucus (D-Mont) would double this to $200 million in order to meet the U.S. Forest Service goal to treat more than double the acres for bark beetle than in previous years. Read more here

Sources: AAAS; ClimateWire; Congressional Quarterly; Environment and Energy Daily; Food Industry Environmental Network; The Hill; Meridian Institute; Reuters

Vision: The Societies Washington, DC Science Policy Office (SPO) will advocate the importance and value of the agronomic, crop and soil sciences in developing national science policy and ensuring the necessary public-sector investment in the continued health of the environment for the well being of humanity. The SPO will assimilate, interpret, and disseminate in a timely manner to Society members information about relevant agricultural, natural resources and environmental legislation, rules and regulations under consideration by Congress and the Administration.

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