Special Report
Ag research essential for food’s future
A dairy industry consultant says it is good food policy to maintain adequate money for agricultural research. Ken Olson says funds are tight and are getting tighter, but the groups he works with – universities, the American Dairy Science Association and Dairy Management Incorporated – are trying to assure continued research funding.
“We need to have innovations coming through the pipeline if they’re going to get to the farm to be applied, and right now that pipeline is being squeezed,” Olson told Brownfield Ag News at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin. “So consequently we don’t have the future technology that we’re going to need to address the many challenges that we do face in the industry.”
Specifically, Olson says that among other things, there needs to be greater work to increase the efficiency of dairy cows and to increase their resistance to disease.
Olson says fewer research dollars also result in fewer people getting training and education from the research that can’t afford to be done.
“Investment in ag research is a great investment,” said Olson. “We need to have it to really supply the food that’s needed for the future.”
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