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From new discoveries at the most fundamental levels of molecular biology to the advanced 

 development of fat substitutes that could revolutionize our diets, the products of USDA- 

 supported agricultural research continually impressed our group. I can assure this 

 subcommittee that the quality, vision and value of your investment returns are quite high. 

 Naturally, there were exceptions that did not escape the scrutiny of this group. Those 

 concerns and recommendations for change are well documented in the reports submitted to 

 Congress and the administration by the User Advisory Board annually. By and large, 

 however, one must conclud»-that the nation's research relating to agriculture and the food 

 system, the bulk of which is conducted in a long-standing partnership between the states and 

 the federal government, is in the hands of people whose combined technical expertise and 

 sense of mission are exceptional. 



But there is a dangerous problem. While being a first-hand wimess to the marvels of 

 discovery being generated by these scientists, one could not escape the coincidental 

 observation of the decaying facilities in and around where this work was being conducted. 

 The level of disintegration and disrepair was so striking that its memory causes me a very 

 palpable feeling of queasiness and anxiety as I prepare these remaiks. As 1 repeatedly 

 observed outmoded equipment and literally crumbling laboratories, some finally abandoned as 

 concerns for safety surpassed the intense desire for laboratory space of any kind, the vision of 

 agricultural research facilities in the communist bloc countries of eastern Europe sprang from 

 my memory. As a college student in the early 1970s, I found the condition of research 

 operations in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and East Germany laughable because I knew 

 my would-be competitors in their agricultural sector would never catch up with the flow of 

 technology I would be able to ^ply in managing my livestock and grain operation in 

 Nebraska. When 1 now see my own nation's research infrastructure floundering toward 

 obsolescence, I am not so amused. 



What happened? I need go no further than the land-grant university for whom I seek private 

 sector support each day to find answers. As state budget allocations have steadily tightened, 

 particularly over the last decade, maintenance has necessarily been deferred, updating and 

 renovation have been rare and even relatively newer buildings (under 20 years) remain 

 marginally equipped. In the case of older facilities, the result of extended deferred 

 maintenance was predictable. Over a period of a few years, not only were they unsuitable for 

 the sort of research demanded to address the natural and economic challenges of modem 

 agriculture, they became almost uninhabitable for any purpose. - With each year that this 

 cancer grows, and it infects every state and region in die United States, the cost and 

 unlikelihood of successful remedial action become higher, the morbid outcome for the nation 

 becomes increasingly predictable. 



As legislators, you know the ^ustoric popularity of criticiang public sector employees for 

 their wastefulness, ineptitude and lack of concern for the taxpayer. I must report to this 

 committee that my observation of the men and women populating our tax-supported and 

 assisted agricultural research programs leads to a fully contrary conclusion. They have made 

 remarkably creative use of facilities that are clearly substandard for ttie sophistication of their 



