Public Comments on the Implementation of Section 406 of The Agricultural Research, Extension and Education Act of 1998 (1998 AREERA)

By Dr. Peter Barry, Chair
Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics

To the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES)

U.S. Department of Agriculture On the Implementation of Section 406 of The Agricultural Research, Extension and Education Act of 1998 (1998 AREERA)

Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments on behalf of the Council on Food Agricultural and Resource Economics (C-FARE) regarding USDA's implementations of Section 406 and the new Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) competitive grants program that integrates research, education, and extension functions.

First let me take this opportunity to explain more about C-FARE. C-FARE is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to strengthening the national presence of the agricultural economics profession. C-FARE's four primary goals include:

1. To identify key economic issues, establish priorities, and seek support for research, extension, and academic instruction;
2. To help agricultural economists contribute more effectively to public and private sector decisions;
3. To work with other professional organizations to foster support for agricultural research; and
4. To publicize agricultural economics contributions to solving important societal issues.

As you can see, Congress's reason for creating the Integrated Accounts and the goals of C-FARE go hand-in-hand. This allows our perspective on the new Integrated Accounts to be especially unique and critical to this process.

As you know, the original intent of Congress while they were establishing the integrated account was to encourage competitive research and education that is applied problem-solving. I would like to urge the USDA and CSREES to recognize the need for economics while you finalize the Implementation of Section 406. Economics would be a perfect match for Congress's reason for creating this account, because economic activities encompass the broad interests of the agricultural industry such as water quality, food safety, pesticide impact assessment, FQPA, and methyl bromide. There has been much ongoing research work and extension education conducted at the state level. This research needs to be mirrored at the national level.

Economics provides fundamental knowledge about the people and institutions that make up our food and agriculture system. And while we believe that the economics research currently supported by USDA grants is of high value and quality, it represents only a shadow of the potential contributions the science of economics can offer society and the scientific community in research areas relevant to the objectives of the Section 406 Authority.

We need to increase the opportunity for social science funding and this can be done within the Section 406 authority. This will generate new knowledge about the economic and social consequences of environmental regulation. Again, this is why I would like to voice my strong support for the additional need for economists and social scientists to participate in such additional programs as the Section 406 of the Agricultural Research, Extension and Education Act of 1998.

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