To fight climate change, don't neglect agricultural R&D By Caroline Grunewald, opinion contributor — 08/02/21 01:30 PM EDT The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill With the Senate’s recent vote to advance the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal — a deal limited to “hard” infrastructure like roads, railways and bridges — advocates for climate action are shifting their sights to a budget reconciliation bill. By bypassing the filibuster, reconciliation would provide Democrats with the opportunity to accomplish many of the Biden administration’s more ambitious and partisan priorities. In all the excitement, however, agricultural research and development — a crucial climate mitigation strategy — is at risk of being overlooked. Agricultural research and development may not be as flashy as other climate policy proposals, such as the establishment of a clean electricity standard or the Civilian Climate Corps, but it has a proven environmental track record, clear economic co-benefits and wide appeal. Agricultural innovations have shrunk agriculture’s environmental footprint by enabling farmers to produce more food on less land , with fewer inputs and greenhouse gas emissions. Since the 1960s, innovation-driven productivity advances have enabled farmers to reduce land use by 9 percent and cut the carbon footprint per pound of milk and chicken by over 50 percent .  Unfortunately for the climate (and for agricultural producers, who benefit from productivity-enhancing and input-saving innovations), total public spending on agricultural research and development has stagnated, and much of our nation’s agricultural research infrastructure is in disrepair. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) facilities have a  $1 billion maintenance backlog; National Institutes of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) research facilities at colleges and universities are burdened by  $11.5 billion in deferred maintenance; nearly 70 percent of facilities at schools of agriculture are at the end of their useful life, and public spending on agricultural R&D fell by almost 30 percent between 2002 and 2015. Private firms are unlikely to fill this funding gap — USDA data reveals the private sector conducts very little agricultural research related to natural resources and the environment — since this environmentally and socially beneficial research is often pre-competitive, has a long payback period, or doesn’t result in products that can be commercialized.  A renewed federal commitment to agricultural research is, therefore, necessary to unlock the environmental potential of innovations like more heat- and drought-tolerant crop varieties, methane-reducing livestock feeds and alternative proteins. According to a recent analysis from researchers at Purdue University and The Breakthrough Institute, where I work as an analyst, boosting U.S. agricultural research spending by nearly $40 billion over 10 years could prevent nearly 58 million acres of cropland conversion and around 154 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent of emissions annually by 2050. To maximize the bang-per-buck of additional federal research funding, Congress will also have to address research infrastructure challenges. Conducting cutting-edge research requires modern facilities with climate-controlled environments, state-of-the-art equipment and sensor technologies. Currently, deferred maintenance, space limitations and equipment shortages threaten to cause delays, jeopardize research quality, and reduce facilities’ research capacity. A sincere commitment to climate action in the reconciliation bill should, therefore, include money for agricultural research infrastructure improvements. Because of the sheer scale of facilities’ deferred maintenance, as well as the multitude of other worthy policy priorities, these investments will have to be made strategically. Congress can enhance the environmental and social benefits of agricultural research and infrastructure spending by directing USDA to develop a revitalization plan that prioritizes facilities conducting the most critical research and considers options to restructure the public research ecosystem to reduce redundancies and facilitate collaboration.  USDA has undertaken similar endeavors in the past — in 2012 the agency developed an ARS Capital Investment Strategy report , which used a data- and criteria-based process to identify 21 facilities for recapitalization over the following decade. Now, nearly a decade later, a budget reconciliation bill would present an ideal opportunity to direct USDA to develop a new 10-year infrastructure revitalization plan that reflects the urgency of the climate crisis. Through budget reconciliation, Democrats are poised to make unprecedented investments in climate mitigation. Given the magnitude of the climate crisis, Congress should invest in a wide range of mitigation strategies, including embracing and expanding public agricultural research — which has reliably delivered environmental benefits for decades — and the infrastructure agricultural researchers depend on. Caroline Grunewald is a food and agriculture analyst with The Breakthrough Institute.  A must-read political newsletter that breaks news and catches you up on what is happening.

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/565916-to-fight-climate-change-dont-neglect-agricultural-rd

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"We've seen example after example of excessive and inefficient spending by the Pentagon, and every dollar squandered is a dollar not being used to support our men and women in uniform," Grassley said in a statement. "After 30 years to get ready, this bill pushes the Defense Department to finally achieve a clean annual audit – a requirement that every other federal agency is held to." Examples of the problems abound, making it very difficult for Congress to conduct oversight of the largest recipient of federal discretionary spending. "Right now, the Pentagon can't even tell you where all of its buildings are located in the United States," the senior aide to Sanders said. Another big issue is that the Pentagon hasn't been able to say how many contractors and subcontractors it employs. In 2018, it emerged that the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency did not have a paper trail for more than $800 million in construction projects . A failed audit from one recent year "uncovered a warehouse full of aircraft parts for planes that haven't been used in over a decade," the Sanders aide said. And then there's the F-35, the notoriously expensive and controversial joint strike fighter jet. Despite costing more than $1.7 trillion in its estimated life cycle, attempts to audit the program have run into major hurdles. Attempts to audit the controversial and costly F-35A fighter jet program has been plagued with problems. As of this year, only a fraction of the Defense Department's many components have been able to meet the auditing requirements. In its most recent audit report, the Pentagon said that its "target date to achieve the desired end state" — in other words, to pass an overall audit – won't come until as late as the 2028 financial year, based on when it says it can carry out corrective actions that are listed in the report. The department says it's trying to improve, and its leaders say they're learning from each failed attempt. In fact, they enquiry say, they haven't been expecting to pass an audit by now, because of the complexity of the Defense Department. "Though the [most recent] audit resulted in a Disclaimer of Opinion and identified material weaknesses, these were expected steps in our ongoing journey toward achieving full auditability and an unmodified audit opinion," then-Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist said when the most recent audit report was released, in November . "The Department's leadership fully expected these results," the Defense Department said in that report, saying other large federal agencies have faced similar problems in their first years of undergoing a financial audit.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/19/997961646/the-pentagon-has-never-passed-an-audit-some-senators-want-to-change-that