Marshall Matz

When it comes to agriculture research no organization is as important to our farmers as is USDA and the Agriculture Research Service (ARS).

The recent Borlaug Dialogue and World Food Prize given to Dr. Akin Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, focused on the importance of helping the continent become self-sufficient in food production.

The 2018 Senate Agriculture Appropriations Report notes that global food production will have to increase by 60 percent to meet the needs of 9 billion people forecast for 2050.

The highest unemployment rates in the country are on the Indian Reservations of the Missouri River Valley where unemployment averages 80%.

The lead editorial in the Easter Sunday edition of the Washington Post declared “Famine Looms in Africa.”

There are some twenty million people at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations. It is the world's most severe humanitarian crisis we have faced since 1945.

The Rockefeller Foundation’s mission—unchanged since 1913—is to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world. Global food security, one of the Foundation’s major focuses, will be front and center when Dr. Raj Shah joins the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) as its new President effective March 1, 2017.

The House of Representatives` Freedom Caucus lists the USDA National Organic Program as one that should be a high priority for reform under President-elect Donald Trump. We agree.

President-Elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama sure agree on one federal policy:  Lobbyists Need Not Apply.