The USDA would offer at least $75 million a year for the development of regionally adapted plant seeds and livestock breeds at public universities under a bill filed by five senators. Sponsors said regional diversity would make the U.S. food chain more resilient and more productive.
In recent decades, plant and animal research has dwindled at public universities at the same time that consolidation has resulted in a seed and ag chemical industry dominated by a handful of giant corporations. More than three dozen small-farm, organic and environmental groups, including the National Farmers Union and the Natural Resources Defense Council, supported the bill.
“Farmers and ranchers are on the front lines of the climate crisis,” said New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees USDA funding. “We need to grow our investments in the research and development of more climate-adaptive and diseases-resistant plant varieties and animal breeds to make our food systems more sustainable.”