Science Policy Report

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18 April 2018

In This Issue:

Policy News

International Corner

Research, Education, Extension Funding Opportunities

Science News

Policy News

House Agriculture Committee Chairman, Mike Conaway, unveiled the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 (H.R. 2) last week. The rewrite of the 2014 farm bill includes several “wins” for the agriculture research. The bill included the competitive research equipment grants program authorized at $5 million per year which ASA, CSSA, and SSSA requested as part of our farm bill priorities. The bill also removes the AFRI matching requirement for competitive grants within NIFA. Lastly, the legislation recognizes the CCA and CPAg programs as qualified certifications, part of an effort to make it easier for CCAs to deliver NRCS conservation services. The bill did not, however, mention the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) or including any additional funding for the NIFA competitive grants program, AFRI. Senate ag leaders said they are still weeks away from introducing their own bill. The House bill was marked up earlier today. Read the full article.

The White House is ignoring warnings from worried Hill Republicans and moving ahead with plans to cut billions of dollars from the massive spending bill that Congress passed in late March, after President Donald Trump has spent weeks grousing about the legislation. Office of Management and Budget Director, Mick Mulvaney, is taking the lead on developing the rollback proposal. The White House could propose slashing anywhere from $30 billion to $60 billion dollars from the $1.3 trillion dollar spending bill passed for this year. The package could be released as early as May 1. Read the full article.

In February, more than 250 members shared their views on policy and political engagement with the Science Policy Office. Thank you to those who participated in this survey! We in the SPO regularly advocate for continued congressional support of agricultural research funding, but we are not always sure whether members are interested in other policy issues, such as graduate student taxes and conservation programs. Results from this survey indicate that members are interested in the SPO engaging on a variety of issues and providing resources for individual members to engage themselves. Read a summary of the survey results here.

This week the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its latest report on the federal fiscal outlook through FY 2028. According to CBO’s baseline, mandatory spending would rise - mostly due to increased spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid - while, defense and nondefense discretionary spending would decline. Just about all R&D is contained in the discretionary budget, which is the part of the budget Congress allocates annually through spending bills. While it can fluctuate year-to-year, R&D tends to remain a rather steady share of discretionary outlays, so rising or falling discretionary spending is usually a strong indicator of where the R&D budget is headed. Given CBO’s prediction for discretionary spending, where might one expect R&D to end up? Read the full article.

International Corner

High-stakes talks on European plans to cut levels of cadmium, a toxic heavy metal, in phosphate fertilizer are on the agenda in Brussels tomorrow. The European Commission is seeking to curtail citizens’ exposure to the compound, which has been linked to kidney and bone disease. Companies and countries that produce low-cadmium fertilizer applaud the new limits, which threaten to upend a €25 billion industry—but others are fiercely opposed. And science has been lost in the fray: Each side claims research that supports their arguments, but the studies reach similar conclusions. Read the full article.

China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is determined to rebalance its energy mix, and incorporate more clean energy. That determination is reflected in the money it put into renewable energy last year, dwarfing spending by the next biggest investor, the US. Last year nearly half of the world’s new renewable energy investment of $279.8 billion came from China, according to a new report. China’s investment in renewable energy—excluding large hydro projects—rose 30% compared with 2016, and was more than three times of that of the US, whose investment in the sector dropped 6% from 2016 to $40.5 billion last year. https://qz.com/1247527/for-every-1-the-us-put-into-renewable-energy-last-year-china-put-in-3/?org=1364&lvl=100&ite=1372&lea=140666&ctr=0&par=1&trk=Read the full article.

The Spanish government has announced plans to raise the country’s overall public R&D budget by 8.3% in 2018, from €6.5 billion to €7 billion—the biggest hike since the economic crisis hit Spain in 2008. But science advocates aren’t exactly overjoyed. The raise sounds far better than it is because more than half of the government’s budget is reserved for R&D loans to companies, and more and more of the money for public research centers and scientists can’t be used because of byzantine accounting rules. Read the full article.

Despite Bangladesh’s remarkable achievement in improving agricultural productivity, the sector is facing risks from climate change, extreme weather events, and sea level rise. To address impacts of climate change on agriculture, the government of Bangladesh and the World Bank launched the Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Country Profile and the Climate Smart Investment Plan (CSIP) for Bangladesh. The launch event brought together key stakeholders to discuss steps in unlocking climate smart technologies, practices and potential investment in agriculture sector, as well as identifying bottlenecks. Read the full article.

In a move few scientists anticipated, the Chinese government has decreed that all scientific data generated in China must be submitted to government-sanctioned data centers before appearing in publications. At the same time, the regulations, posted last week, call for open access and data sharing. The possibly conflicting directives puzzle researchers, who note that the yet-to-be-established data centers will have latitude in interpreting the rules. Scientists in China can still share results with overseas collaborators, says Xie Xuemei, who specializes in innovation economics at Shanghai University. Xie also believes that the new requirements to register data with authorities before submitting papers to journals will not affect most research areas. Read the full article.

Research, Education, Extension Funding Opportunities

The Division of Graduate Education announces the continuation of the Graduate Research Internship Program (GRIP). GRIP provides professional development to NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Fellows through internships developed in partnership with federal agencies. Through GRIP, Fellows participate in mission-related, collaborative research under the guidance of host research mentors at federal facilities and national laboratories. GRIP enhances the Fellows' professional skills, professional networks, and preparation for a wide array of career options. The sponsor agencies benefit by engaging Fellows in applied projects, helping to develop a highly skilled U.S. workforce in areas of national need. GRIP is open to active Fellows who have completed at least one year of their graduate program at the time of application and will retain their active status for at least 12 months following the application submission deadline. Deadline, May 6. Read the full announcement.

The purpose of the TCEP is to enable 1994 institutions to deliver science-based, culturally relevant extension education programs designed to address public needs and improve quality of life. The TCEP is intended to be a component of the applicant 1994 institution's land-grant roadmap or strategic planning process. To the extent practicable, priorities should reflect NIFA's national critical needs areas: 1) Development of sustainable energy; 2) Increased global food security; 3) Adaptation of agriculture and natural resources to global climate change; 4) Reduction of childhood and adolescent obesity; and 5) Improved food safety. Deadline, May 21. Read the full announcement.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), in cooperation with its partners, is offering an initiative to connect youth to the outdoors by providing support for conservation education and employment programs. This initiative, Developing the Next Generation of Conservationists, supports organizations that are creating innovative educational opportunities and job experiences for youth and young adults. These opportunities encourage young people, particularly urban, tribal, and minority youth, to engage with the natural world and discover career opportunities available in conservation. The program invests in two focus areas: Category One engages pre-K-12 students through approaches that integrate in-class and out-of-class experiences in conservation literacy and stewardship. Category Two supports young adults in paid conservation corps and conservation-focused internships to connect young adults to the outdoors through conservation employment programs. Deadline is June 21. Read the full announcement.

The Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) Citrus Disease Research and Extension Program (CDRE) is authorized in the Agricultural Act of 2014 (H.R. 2642) to award grants to eligible entities to conduct research and extension activities, technical assistance and development activities to: (a) combat citrus diseases and pests, both domestic and invasive and including huanglongbing and the Asian citrus psyllid, which pose imminent harm to United States citrus production and threaten the future viability of the citrus industry; and (b) provide support for the dissemination and commercialization of relevant information, techniques, and technologies discovered pursuant to research and extension activities funded through SCRI/CDRE and other research and extension projects targeting problems caused by citrus production diseases and invasive pests. Deadline, June 29. Read the full announcement.

A well-prepared, innovative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce is crucial to the Nation's prosperity and security. To accelerate progress in these areas, the next generation of STEM professionals will need to master new knowledge and skills, collaborate across disciplines, and shape the future of the human-technology interface in the workplace. NSF is accepting proposals to support education research and development projects focused on re- or up-skilling the existing workforce; developing the skilled technical workforce; and/or preparing those at the undergraduate, graduate, or postdoctoral fellow/early career levels. We encourage projects to partner with industry, public, and private sectors to define the needs of tomorrow’s workforce and develop educational and learning strategies to meet those needs. Proposals should address near-, mid-, and long-term challenges and opportunities facing the development of STEM professionals or anticipate new structures and functions of the STEM learning and teaching enterprise. Deadline, July 2. Read the full announcement.

Science News

In a report released Tuesday morning, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine says a single breakthrough discovery for managing citrus greening in the future is unlikely even after a nearly decade-long research initiative on citrus greening disease. Greening has progressed from "an acute to a chronic disease throughout the state" and has caused Florida's industry a cumulative loss of $2.9 billion in grower revenues from 2007 to 2014. According to the report, the inability to culture the bacteria in the laboratory, the lack of advanced diagnostics for early disease detection, and the absence of standardized research methodology that would improve the comparability of results across studies all pose significant barriers to finding a solution. Read the full article.

Researchers at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service were part of a team of engineers who created the wireless sensor-based decision-support system that may help automate application rates to specific areas of a crop field by using real-time data on pivots equipped with variable-rate irrigation technology. The researchers who developed it call their innovative breakthrough the Scheduling Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, or ISSCADA. It could well be termed Automatic Irrigation, as the system allows “applying the right amount of water at the right time and in the right location in a field,” explained Susan O’Shaughnessy, an agricultural engineer. Read the full article.

Climate change is set to bring big disruptions to the agriculture world in the coming decades. Weather volatility is going to throw the sector for a loop, bringing more frequent droughts, flooding and storms, according to a report from BMI Research on agriculture megatrends. As water becomes more scare and global temperatures rise, regulations for agriculture -- the world’s largest contributor to non-carbon dioxide emissions -- are likely to become stricter and farmers will demand more environmentally friendly equipment and farming techniques. Agriculture will shift from being labor-intensive to being capital intensive, with farmers relying on technology to get bigger yields from their crops, spur profits and solve problems like reduction of waste, the report said. Read the full article.

The best solution to sustaining portions of the Mississippi Delta may be river diversions that bring sediment to shrinking coastlines. However, a new study concludes that the rate of land-building will likely be dwarfed by the rate of wetland loss. Prior to human influence, the delta grew at a rate of 2 to 3 square miles per year. But over the past century, the rate of land loss in coastal Louisiana has averaged 15 to 20 square miles per year. Geologist Torbjörn Törnqvist of Tulane University, a co-author of the study, said that given accelerating rates of sea level rise, losses will likely continue long into the future, and that even the best-designed river diversions won't be able to prevent more land loss. Read the full article.

Phenomics is the study of all observable characteristics of a living organism. These observable characteristics are called phenotypes, and are anything measurable within the plant, such as the chemistry, color, genetic code, size, and so on. Plant phenomics is particularly interesting because of the amazing adaptability of plants. Plants are sessile organisms, meaning they can’t pick up and move. Unlike animals who can burrow or run away from danger, plants must stay in a fixed location when facing threat. Because of this challenge, plants have adapted to their environments extremely well. Understanding this adaptability and the behavior of plants is an interesting challenge. Read the full article.

In American farm country, a grass-roots movement is spreading, a movement to keep more roots in the soil. (Not just grass roots, of course; roots of all kinds.) Its goal: Promoting healthy soil that's full of life. For years, talk of "healthy soil" was mostly limited to organic farmers and others on the fringes of mainstream American agriculture. No more. Articles about soil health fill major farm publications. It's the subject of several recent books. Big food companies are on board, and some of them are discussing a new eco-label for food, alongside "organic" and "fair trade," that would reward farmers for adopting practices the build healthy soil — what many are calling "regenerative agriculture." Read the full article.

Vintners in California’s Central and Napa valleys are facing two shortages: of water and of workers. What’s more, the state’s recent drought has caused a financial strain for growers thanks to the cost of irrigating their thousands of hectares of vines. Stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws, competition from less strenuous higher-paying jobs, and an aging workforce have led to a labor shortage, according to Wine Spectator magazine. When researchers from the University of California met with grape growers to discuss how technology could help them, the growers asked if their irrigation systems could be made more efficient and with less human intervention. Read the full article.

Sources: USDA; NSF; NAS; AAAS; ScienceInsider; Politico; Bloomberg; Successful Farming; Medium; NPR; The Institute; Quartz; World Bank News

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.

This page of the ASA-CSSA-SSSA web site will highlight current news items relevant to Science Policy. It is not an endorsement of any position.