Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue announced the Agriculture Innovation Agenda, which is a department-wide initiative to help better position U.S. ag to meet future global demands. The initiative will align resources, programs, and research to help stimulate innovation so that American agriculture can achieve the goal of increasing production by 40 percent while cutting the environmental footprint of U.S. agriculture in half by 2050. “We know we have a challenge facing us: to meet future food, fiber, fuel, and feed demands with finite resources,” Perdue says. “USDA’s Agriculture Innovation Agenda is our opportunity to define American agriculture’s role to feed everyone and do right as a key player in the solution to this challenge.” He calls the new agenda a strategic, department-wide effort to better align USDA’s resources, programs, and research to provide farmers with the tools they need to be successful. “We’re also continually mindful of the need for America’s agriculture industry to be environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable to maintain our position as a leader in the global effort to meet demand,” he adds. The first component of the Ag Innovation Agenda is to develop a U.S. ag innovation strategy that aligns and synchronizes public and private sector research.
