The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) and the Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR) Foundation, two organizations focused on advancing agricultural science and innovation, are merging.
CAST, which produces reports and conducts webinars on agricultural science and innovation topics, will acquire SoAR’s resources and mission, CAST CEO Chris Boomsma told Agri-Pulse. This includes taking possession of several reports published by SoAR, an organization that advocates for increasing federal agricultural research funding.
“I think we both just saw that there was a lot of alignment between our two organizations and that we’d be stronger as one as opposed to multiple organizations pursuing very similar work and similar goals,” SoAR President Karl Anderson told Agri-Pulse.
Boomsma said discussions over the two organizations combining began early last year and were driven by the idea that both organizations would be stronger working together. The decision is likely to broaden CAST’s mission through the addition of agricultural research as a priority, he said.
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“CAST historically was principally about informing and educating policy makers on science and technology,” Boomsma said. “This kind of connects the research piece into it now and says, look, the science and technology is good, but we need adequate research dollars to bring about these technologies, to get them in the hands of farmers.”
Boomsma will be CEO of the combined organization. While Anderson plans to provide strategic advice through the transition, he will not have a formal role going forward.
Boomsma said there are still some details of the merger that need to be worked out, including whether any of the members of SoAR’s board members will join some of CAST’s boards.
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