Here’s what you’ll find in this newsletter: 

1. A few big things happening in Washington, DC and beyond.

2. Hot off the press statements and activities from the ASA, CSSA, and SSSA science policy office

3. Engagement opportunities to help you build advocacy skills. Look for the plant symbol for other calls to action throughout the newsletter.

The American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) represent nearly 8,000 scientists in academia, industry, and government. We also support a nationwide network of more than 13,300 Certified Crop Advisers (CCA) and over 700 Certified Professional Soil Scientists (CPSS) who work directly with farmers, many as technical service providers (TSPs).

White House announces fertilizer grants, hunger and nutrition roadmap

What’s new: The U.S.

After decades of being relegated and regulated, research on industrial hemp as a valuable crop is far behind. That’s because the United States banned the use of hemp in the 1930s. The result was all research about this crop stopped, too. Now that the Farm Bill allows for the growing and use of industrial hemp, researchers have a decades-long gap in knowledge.

The Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AgARDA) is a pilot project created in the 2018 Farm Bill for a USDA-based “Advanced Research Projects Agency” like DARPA or ARPA-E but for agriculture research. The program is authorized at $50 million, but has not yet received funding through the annual Congressional funding process. ASA, CSSA, and SSSA enlisted a group of experts to develop an AgARDA Roadmap that could be used by USDA as a guide for how the program should be set up.

There’s no question that climate change will be a major theme in the 117th Congress. On February 24, the House Agriculture Committee held its very first hearing on the topic, “Climate Change and the U.S.