Toward Sustainable Food Production: A New Direction for USDA Research?

Last week, reports Grist, Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, said some pretty intriguing things about the direction of research supporting sustainable food production.

Speaking at the launch the launch of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), the research arm of that agency formerly referred to as the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), Vilsack said:

The opportunity to truly transform a field of science happens at best once a generation. Right now, I am convinced, is USDA’s opportunity to work with the Congress, the other science agencies, and with our partners in industry, academia, and the nonprofit sector, to bring about transformative change.

Sounds pretty exciting -- on the surface, at least...

Is this "new direction" really in line with what some of our top thinkers in sustainable food production are advocating?

Grist reached out to some of them to find out what they would like the USDA’s new research body, NIFA, to focus on.

Read the responses that Grist got>>
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