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The U.S. needs to increase funding for agricultural and food research

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs says the U.S. must double investment in agricultural and food research over the next 10 years to meet projected global demand.  The report; “Leveraging Innovation to Feed the Future” says U.S. spending on such research peaked in 1994 and has declined 20 percent since then.  Meagan Keefe is the author of the report, she says “we’re not even doing enough R & D to even maintain the productivity of the past.”  She says private funding for research has increased over the period but that funding is usually along a different avenue than the route public funding takes.

Specifically, the report calls for the United States to:

• Forge a new science of agriculture to increase productivity sustainably, nutritiously, and economically.
• Production must be increased while using fewer resources, improving nutrition, and providing solid incomes to food producers.
• Build research capacity. Support for university and research institutions in developing countries is critical to innovations that work in the local context.
• Bolster research on climate change. Research must focus on building resilience and addressing threats to the food system by climate change.
• Expand nutrition-sensitive agricultural research. Nutrition should be a key priority of research to combat chronic malnutrition.
• Reduce food waste. Innovations for reducing food waste are vital to help offset the production needed to meet increased demand.

Keefe talks about the report:

The report is available here: