34 



Mr. Stenholm. You mentioned about priority setting the impor- 

 tance of environmental, food safety, nutrition, and international 

 markets. Is there any other criteria that you have delineated that 

 would be denoted as priorities in which the Congress should take 

 a good, hard look at as far as any recommendations that we make? 



Mr. Finney. Of course, I mentioned earlier the priorities that 

 drive our decisions within the Agricultural Research Service — and 

 they are probably not too far out of line in terms of the general 

 needs of the broad area of agriculture — relate to the concerns that 

 have been raised by the public about the environmental concerns 

 that the citizens of the country have. We realize, of course, that 

 American agriculture has been under a great deal of criticism over 

 the years, so that is an important one for us to develop the tech- 

 nology, to allow American agriculture to still be productive and to 

 minimize the use of agricultural chemicals in the environment, as 

 well as the natural resources associated with soil erosion. Those 

 are the two major ones in that area. 



The area of food safety, of course, has been a major concern as 

 well as nutrition and health. Then the national economy or inter- 

 national trade the Secretary has indicated to be one of his prior- 

 ities. He will take whatever efforts are necessary to maintain 

 American agriculture as competitive in international markets. 



So these regional laboratories that I mentioned in New Orleans, 

 California, Peoria, and Philadelphia were developed originally to 

 expand the markets and make us more competitive for our prod- 

 ucts, not only domestically, but internationally. 



The last area that I mentioned, of course, is the area of bio- 

 technology and information systems. There is a great recognition 

 that the opportunities with genetic engineering activities, as well 

 as the introduction of computerization into the agricultural system, 

 offers great opportunity. 



Those are the general principles that we use when we look at our 

 facility needs in making decisions in the allocation of resources. 

 There may be more information on page 2 of the attachment to our 

 prepared statement, the 6-year plan. 



Mr. Stenholm. Thank you very much. 



Any other questions? 



[No response.] 



Mr. Stenholm. If not, thank you very much. 



Mr. Volkmer. Mr. Chairman, were you able to elicit answers for 

 the questions that you earlier had? I failed to do one thing — and 

 I don't know if the chairman has done it or not — on the reports 

 that you have made already on the 72 facilities, could we obtain 

 copies of each of those reports? 



Mr. Carlson. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Volkmer. By next Monday or Tuesday? They have to be 

 somewhere, don't they? 



Mr. Carlson. We have them all. 



Mr. Volkmer. Surely, you have copies of them. 



Mr. Carlson. We have them. 



Mr. Volkmer. You wouldn't have to send one for each member 

 of the subcommittee. 



Mr. Stenholm. How big a truck is it going to take? 



Mr. Carlson. It is not too bad. 



