6. Investing in the Future Through Research, Education, and Economics

Agricultural Research Service

Mission

As USDA’s main in-house research arm and one of the four agencies that make up the Research, Education, and Economics mission area, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) conducts research to develop and transfer solutions to agricultural problems of high national priority and provides information access and dissemination to:

• Ensure high-quality, safe food, and other agricultural products,
• Assess the nutritional needs of Americans,
• Sustain a competitive agricultural economy,
• Enhance the natural resource base and the environment, and
• Provide economic opportunities for rural citizens, communities, and society as a whole.

Selected accomplishments for FY 1998

• A new product created by ARS researchers significantly reduces potential Salmonella contamination in chickens. In U.S. field tests involving 80,000 chickens, the product—called PREEMPT—reduced Salmonella from about 7 percent in untreated chickens to zero percent in treated chickens. PREEMPT is a blend of 29 live, non-harmful bacteria naturally present in healthy adult chickens. These bacteria are sprayed in a fine mist over newly hatched chicks and prevented Salmonella from gaining a foothold in the chicks’ intestines.
  
• The water quality threat from phosphorus in chicken and pig manure could be greatly reduced by a new type of feed corn that’s low in phytic acid. Phosphorus loss to manure is 25 to 40 percent less when animals eat the low-phytic acid corn discovered by an ARS scientist. Excess phosphorus pollutes many bodies of water such as the Chesapeake Bay.
  
• An enzyme in horseradish could make it easier to produce life-saving anti-cancer drugs, preliminary research by ARS scientists suggests. The scientists devised a method that uses the enzyme horseradish peroxidase in making cancer drugs known as chlorins. The new one-step method could save time and money.
  
• Tender, affordable meats with less fat could come from hydrodyne, technology that uses shock waves to improve the texture of everything from lamb chops to steaks. Hydrodyne was developed in part by ARS scientists. With hydrodyne, underwater shock waves from a high-energy explosive charge tenderize meat with pressures as high as 25,000 pounds per square inch. Hydrodyne technology can provide a 50- to 70-percent improvement in tenderness of less tender meat. Hydrodyne also provides an alternative to fat as a source of tenderness.
  

  Farm*A*Syst Home*A*Syst Wins Hammer Award This national program, centered at the University of Wisconsin, is an example of how Federal and State government agencies and the Extension services of the State land-grant college system can creatively work together to benefit rural America and the environment. Most people know that water pollution can come from crop land, rangeland, and livestock areas. But water pollution can also be generated around the farmstead where farm buildings are located, where petroleum and chemicals are stored and handled, and where animals are maintained and farm equipment serviced. Landowners are usually not aware of these problems, cost-effective abatement actions, or government assistance programs. This program, jointly funded by USDA’s CSREES and NRCS and EPA, has addressed this need with a unique approach. A small interagency team refined prototype education/assessment materials for several States. Alternative delivery approaches were piloted and lessons learned were shared with other State teams. Farm*A*Syst assessment and educational packages organize technical and management information obtained from a variety of disciplines and government agencies into one simplified and highly usable system of up to 15 educational models and worksheets. Using these, farmers develop action plans to reduce or eliminate pollution risks on their property.

• ARS scientists showed that putting a little extra color in the tomato patch can reduce the need for pesticides and boost yields, too. In field studies in South Carolina, tomato plants grown with red plastic mulch in nematode-infested soil produced 17 pounds of fruit, more than double the yield of tomatoes grown with traditional black plastic mulch on infested soil. This was the first study documenting that red mulch suppresses damage from the root-dwelling nematodes.
  
• A study of 247 women at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts, Boston, confirmed that long-term use of vitamin C supplements substantially reduces the risk of cataract—a clouding of the eye’s lens. There were 77 percent fewer early-stage cataracts among the women who took the supplements daily for more than 10 years than among those who didn’t take the supplements.
  
• From corn fiber, a low-value byproduct of corn wet milling, ARS scientists developed two valuable new products: “Amaizing oil,” a corn fiber oil that may lower cholesterol, and “Zeagen,” a white corn fiber gum. Feeding studies with hamsters indicated that “Amaizing oil” significantly lowered total serum cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, the kind that clogs the arteries. The corn fiber gum could be used in food as an emulsifier, a soluble dietary fiber, or a thickener, and also has potential industrial applications for use in adhesives and water-based paint thickeners.
  
• ARS scientists have identified the instigator behind the age-related decline in T cell function—which coordinates the body’s response to an infectious agent. What’s more, they were able to reduce the effects of this instigator in cultured cells. The scientists showed that prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) might contribute to the decline of T cell function in seniors because too much of this inflammation-producing substance has been shown to suppress T cell activity. Adding the antioxidant vitamin E to the cell cultures reduced PGE2 levels and improved T cell function. This suggests that people might slow the dysfunction of the immune system as they age by increasing body levels of vitamin E and possibly other nutrients.
  
• A new detector built by an ARS scientist and an Iowa State University chemist illuminates otherwise-unseen fecal contamination on meat and alerts meat packers to the contamination within seconds. Feces are the major source of bacterial contamination in livestock and poultry slaughterhouses. With the new device, which utilizes fluorescent spectroscopy, a contaminated carcass can be identified and then sanitized before the contamination spreads.
  
• ARS scientists in the spring of 1998 kicked off a new national project to suppress the Formosan subterranean termite, starting in New Orleans. The termite is now established in more than a dozen States, costing $1 billion annually in repairs and control measures. An information site on the project can be found on the World Wide Web at www.ars.usda.gov/is/fullstop
  
• New revved-up biodiesel fuels that start engines at cold temperatures down to 5 degrees F have been developed by ARS scientists. The research should help speed up the commercialization of biodiesel fuels—a boost for U.S. soybean growers and the environment. Cold has been a problem for biodiesel fuels because temperatures at or below freezing cause them to form solid, waxy crystals that block fuel lines and filters. The ARS scientists devised a three-step winterization process of mixing in additives, chilling the fuel, and filtering out solids. The research can help put biodiesel fuels into city buses, government and industry fleet cars, and underground mining equipment. The Federal Energy Policy Act requires 75 percent of all new State and Federal vehicles to be fitted for alternative fuels by the year 2001.

Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service

Mission

The mission of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) is to achieve significant and equitable improvements in domestic and global economic, environmental, and social conditions by advancing creative and integrated research, education, and extension programs in food, agricultural, and related sciences in partnership with both the public and private sectors.

USDA Grants To Boost U.S. Agricultural Competitiveness

USDA awarded $3 million in Risk Management Education Program grants to help farmers and ranchers compete in local and global markets. Some of the 17 grants give special attention to the needs of limited-resource farmers. The grants are part of a coordinated USDA risk management education and insurance protection program required by the Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act of 1996.

Fund for Rural America Grants for Research, Education, and Extension

CSREES developed and carried out the $31.2 million competitive research, education, and extension grants component of the Fund for Rural America, awarding 115 grants to organizations in 39 States. The grants support research, education, and extension projects that strengthen USDA agricul-tural, environmental, and rural development efforts and improve the quality of life for rural residents. In addition, the grants will help USDA improve delivery of services to underserved and poorly served farmers and other rural residents.

USDA Grants $2.4 Million for Community Food Security

CSREES awarded $2.4 million to 18 communities in 12 states to address local food, farm, and nutrition issues and help them become more self-sufficient in providing for their own food and nutrition needs. Many of the funded projects focus on helping communities meet the nutritional needs of low-income and elderly people. Some of the projects incorporate small business development, direct markets for local farms, and job training programs for youth.

USDA Water Quality Education Grants Target Underserved Communities

CSREES awarded more than $678,000 in USDA water quality education grants to help underserved communities make informed decisions about their water resources. The 17 grants are designed to help the communities improve water management, handle storm water, manage wastes, and protect or improve the quality of their water supplies.

USDA Reaches Out to Communities on the Year 2000 “Bug”

The Year 2000 (Y2K) “bug” affects every part of society. The Nation’s food supply sector is at risk due to heavy dependence on computerized processing and information exchange. CSREES created a Y2K Community Outreach awareness campaign, putting valuable Y2K information into the hands of the public through the vast Cooperative Extension Service network of educators and specialists. The Y2K toolkit gave producers a clear understanding of the implications of the Y2K problem, solutions, and strategies for assessing their own situations, and suggestions for creating contingency plans should systems fail.

Small Farm Digest: Valuable Resource

CSREES’ Small Farm Program works hard to improve the income and economic viability of small farms. One valuable resource for small farmers, introduced this year, is the Small Farm Digest, a quarterly newsletter distributed in print to more than 26,000 subscribers and also available via the World Wide Web. The newsletter highlights information from the national perspective, offers details of programs and resources available to small farmers, fosters discussion among small farmers, and presents success stories of small farmers to their peers.

Capacity Building Grants Awarded by USDA

Capacity building grants were awarded to support 42 teaching and research projects at historically black 1890 land-grant institutions and Tuskegee University. The $9.2 million program is designed to strengthen partnerships, promote workforce diversity, and enhance the institutions’ teaching and research programs in the food and agricultural sciences. Teaching projects will focus on innovative student recruitment and retention activities, develop new and updated curricula, and acquire cutting-edge instructional delivery systems and scientific instrumentation for teaching. Research projects will address critical issues of State, regional, and national importance in such areas as food safety, human nutrition, environmental sciences, biotechnology, and plant and animal sciences.

Tribal Colleges Receive USDA Extension Awards

CSREES awarded nearly $2 million to 29 tribal colleges under USDA’s New Tribal Colleges Extension Program. The program supports training and education in a wide variety of areas, including production agriculture; business management; community and family development; 4-H and youth leadership; natural resources and conservation; and nutrition, diet, and health.

Economic Research Service

Mission

The mission of the Economic Research Service is to provide economic analysis on efficiency, efficacy, and equity issues related to agriculture, food, natural resources, and rural development to improve public and private decisionmaking.

Accomplishments

Following are some key accomplishments of the Economic Research Service for FY 1998:

Implications of Regional Trade Agreements and the World Trade Organization
An ERS report, Regional Trade Agreements and U.S. Agriculture (AER-771), analyzes RTA’s and concludes that U.S. agriculture can benefit from participating in them and may lose when it does not participate. Agriculture is an important source of potential U.S. gains from RTA’s.

Asian Financial Crisis
ERS conducted several analyses during 1998 of the implications for U.S. agriculture of the rapidly changing Asian economic and financial conditions. The potential scope and impact of the Asian financial crisis was first summarized in Agricultural Outlook (AGO-248). The initial assessment provided the analytic base for reassessing the Department’s short and intermediate outlook for U.S. agriculture and trade and allowed for more informed private and public decisions relative to the Asian crisis and its linkage to U.S. agriculture.

Effects of Prices and Income on Food Choices
Economic factors such as food prices and consumer income are important determinants of food choices, with potential consequences for nutrient availability. An ERS report, How Economic Factors Influence the Nutrient Content of Diets (TB-1864), provides estimates of how the availability of 28 nutrients would change as consumers alter their food purchases in response to changes in food prices and income through the interdependent food demand relationships. Estimates of nutrient income responses can also be a starting point in evaluating possible effects of income changes on dietary quality when food stamp benefits are cut or increased.

Sustainability in the Great Plains
ERS published a variety of research perspectives on economic sustainability in the Great Plains in a special issue of USDA’s Rural Development Perspectives focusing on issues related to building a sustainable economy in the rural Great Plains. The research effort emphasized the effects of 1996 farm legislation, the long-term decline of population, changing linkages between net migration and natural amenities and suburbanization, the needs of manufacturing firms, distress in the retail/wholesale sector, and the potential effects of Federal programs in the region.

Highlighting the Performance of America’s Food System
ERS provides needed research and information to assess the ability and performance of the Nation’s food system to deliver safe and nutritious food at reasonable prices. The broad and inventive research program provided information to Federal policy officials on demographic, social, and economic determinants of diet quality; the costs of poor diets; and the benefits of improving diets and nutrition; thereby highlighting the importance of know-ledge and health education in shaping consumers’ diets.

Enhanced Understanding of Farms and Rural America
ERS tracks and explains the changes being experienced on farms and in rural America. Such structural information about farms and rural communities is particularly important in showing the heterogeneity of farms and businesses that comprise the economic landscape of rural areas. As a result, the Secretary’s National Commission on Small Farms relied heavily and almost exclusively on ERS information for the factual basis that was used to augment, validate, or refute impressions and beliefs about the situation and problems of small and minority-operated farms out of which the Commission prepared recommendations.

Information generated by ERS is particularly important for policymakers as they deal with small or disadvantaged farms, minority farmers, and the impacts of market and natural events. For example, ERS developed a new economic typology to characterize farms by linking primary occupation of the farm operators and their stage of career to value of production as a way to understand unique needs. In another example, ERS research on rural and agricultural credit markets has been used to assess the impact of proposed changes in USDA’s farm loan programs.

National Agricultural Statistics Service

The mission of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is to serve the basic agricultural and rural data needs of the people of the United States, including those working in agriculture and those living in rural communities, by objectively providing important, usable, and accurate statistical information and services for informed decisionmaking.

1997 Census of Agriculture

In 1998, NASS conducted the census of agriculture for the first time. The transition of the census from the Bureau of the Census went very smoothly, even though the census of agriculture program was transferred to NASS midway through the planning cycle. Several noteworthy improvements were implemented which resulted in a higher response rate and release of the results 10 months earlier than the previous census.

Dairy Products Prices

NASS implemented the Dairy Products Prices survey in September 1998 to collect prices for nonfat dry milk, butter, and dry whey. These price data are published weekly along with the ongoing cheese price series. The cheese price is the major component in the current milk price support formula (Basic Formula Price) that determines the minimum prices that plants can pay producers for milk. Under the proposed new formula, all of the above product prices would be used in the milk price support formula.

International Agricultural Statistics Conference

NASS hosted the first International Conference on Agricultural Statistics, sponsored by the International Statistical Institute. Presentations and discussions focused on future needs for agricultural information, as well as new developments in technology and statistical survey methodology that will be required to meet those needs. The March 1998 conference, attended by over 250 participants from 50 countries, was deemed highly successful and brought NASS and USDA recognition for its leadership in promoting improved agricultural statistics throughout the world.

International Assistance Provided

NASS provided technical assistance and training to improve agricultural statistics programs in 12 countries. A NASS staff member continued a 2-year residency assignment in Ethiopia, and short-term assignments supported work in Chile, China, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and Venezuela. This technical assistance helps these countries improve agricultural data collection efforts, primarily through improved sample survey methodology. In addition, NASS’ International Programs Office coordinated and/or conducted training programs in the United States for 158 visitors representing 22 countries.