In food crisis, U.S. may cut support for ag research

[flashl]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States may slash support for pioneering agriculture research this year, just as surging food prices and supply concerns prompt increasingly urgent calls for a revolution in global farm productivity.

A network of premier research centers, which helped drive the first Green Revolution in the 1960s, which transformed crop yields and saved millions from starvation, is predicting a "major reduction" in some of its work if Washington follows through with plans to cut core support by 75 percent.

...

That move, he said, would undercut research aiming to boost rice yields, potentially feeding another 180 million poor people in Asia, to make rice and beans more nutritious, or to improve irrigation in the tropics.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which provided a total of $56 million last year for the centers, says no final decisions have been made.

Reuters

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2429196820080424

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Relax, 'our' TREASURY Secretary Paulson sees no food shortage in US (Video)

[silverlib]

1. And we think the plan is backfiring...

That PNAC is facing unexpected obstacles. News like this forces me to put on my tin foil hat and think that everything is going as planned.

[liberal N proud]

2. Isn't this the time that research is most needed?

Finding ways to grow more and drought resistant foods?

Or is this one of those war is peace moments / black is white?