The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced it has awarded $30.1 million in competitive grants to fund 80 research projects to improve food safety, reduce antibiotic resistance in food, and increase the resilience of plants in the face of climate change. The grants are made possible through USDA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI).
The projects will focus on enhancing food safety through improved processing technologies, effective mitigation strategies for antimicrobial resistance, improving food safety, and improving food quality. n.
In addition to the awards, John Holdren, President Obama’s Science and Technology Advisor and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy John Holdren and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the President’s 2017 budget will invest a total of $700 million for AFRI, the fully authorized funding level established by Congress in the 2008 Farm Bill. If approved, this would double funding for this research.
In the seven years since AFRI was established, the program has led to discoveries in agriculture to combat childhood obesity, improve and sustain rural economic growth, address water availability issues, increase food production, find new sources of energy, mitigate the impacts of climate variability and enhance resiliency of our food systems, and ensure food safety.
