Fw: Chairman Lincoln's Statement on the Appointment of Dr. Roger N.Beachy, Ph.D. as Director for the new National Institute of Food andAgriculture at USDA

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

---

From: "Lincoln, Lincoln Communications (Lincoln)"
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:15:33 -0500
Subject: Chairman Lincoln's Statement on the Appointment of Dr. Roger N. Beachy, Ph.D. as Director for the new National Institute of Food and Agriculture at USDA

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 30, 2009

Contact: Katie Laning Niebaum, Leah Vest DiPietro

(202) 224-4843

 

 

 

Chairman Lincoln's Statement on the Appointment of Dr. Roger N. Beachy, Ph.D. as Director for the new National Institute of Food and Agriculture

 

Washington – The Honorable Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, today issued the following statement on the appointment by President Barack Obama of Dr. Roger N. Beachy, Ph.D. as Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

 

"I look forward to working with Dr. Beachy as he leads the new National Institute of Food and Agriculture at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  He is internationally known for his groundbreaking research on developing virus-resistant plants through biotechnology, and his leadership of the Donald Danforth Plant Sciences Center in St. Louis, Missouri, has prepared him well for this new position," stated Chairman Lincoln. "Enhancement of our research capabilities in agriculture will have large impacts on our ability to produce the food, fiber, and fuel needed in this country and abroad, and I remain a strong supporter of these initiatives."

 

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has been established to improve the oversight, administration, and execution of competitive research grants at USDA.  NIFA will also provide enhanced support for the research, extension, and higher education programs conducted at America's land-grant universities and related institutions.  It will assume all authorities from the Cooperative State, Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) and house all competitive grant programs.  NIFA was established by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008.

 

Dr. Beachy is the founding president of the not-for-profit Danforth Center. In this role, Dr. Beachy has been responsible for developing and implementing the Danforth Center's strategic direction, recruiting its staff, and formulating its research programs.  Prior to joining the Danforth Center, Dr. Beachy headed the Division of Plant Biology at The Scripps Research Institute from 1991-1998, a leading biomedical research center in La Jolla, California. Dr. Beachy was also previously a member of the Biology Department at Washington University in St. Louis from 1978 to 1991, where he was Professor and Director of the Center for Plant Science and Biotechnology.

 

--30--

 

Fw: Press Release: Subcommittee Reviews Implementation of AgriculturalResearch Programs

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

-----Original Message-----
From: AgPress <agpress@mail.house.gov>

Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:20:59
To: News Distribution<news@aglist.house.gov>
Subject: Press Release: Subcommittee Reviews Implementation of Agricultural
Research Programs


News from the House Agriculture Committee


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 30, 2009

Media Contact: April Slayton (202) 225-6872; Scott Kuschmider (202) 225-1496



Subcommittee Reviews Implementation of Agricultural Research Programs



WASHINGTON - Today, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research held a hearing to review
implementation of the research title of the 2008 Farm Bill. Congressman Tim Holden of Pennsylvania chaired today's hearing, which
featured testimony from three witnesses, including Dr. Rajiv Shah, the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics at the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"We expect the changes we made in the 2008 Farm Bill will enhance cooperation and maximize efficiency throughout USDA's research
agencies," Chairman Holden said. "Agricultural research is in high demand, and is an important investment in the future of our food,
fiber, and fuel system."

"In developing the research title of the recent farm bill, this Committee spent considerable time working with USDA, the research
community, and the beneficiaries of publicly funded research, education and extension programs to enhance the quality, transparency
and accountability of these programs," said Ranking Member Bob Goodlatte of Virginia. "With the implementation deadline October 1st
for several significant provisions of the research title, it is particularly timely for this Subcommittee to hear from USDA, the
USDA research advisory board, our land grant universities and other constituent groups to update us on these important
developments."

The 2008 Farm Bill made important changes to research and education programs at USDA. It streamlined agricultural research by
establishing a National Institute of Food and Agriculture. In addition, the bill created a new premier research program called the
Agriculture and Food Research Initiative to meet the growing list of needs in agricultural research, extension, and education for
food and agricultural sciences.

The opening statements of all witnesses are available on the Committee website at http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/index.html.
A full transcript of the hearing will be posted on the Committee website at a later date.



Witnesses:



Panel I

Dr. Rajiv Shah, Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.


Panel II

Dr. D.C. Coston, Vice President for Agriculture and University Extension, North Dakota State University, on behalf of The Board on
Agriculture Assembly, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Fargo, North Dakota
Mr. Joseph H. Layton, Jr., soybean, corn, and grape producer, on behalf of National Coalition for Food and Agricultural Research,
American Soybean Association, and the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory Board, Vienna,
Maryland


The U.S. House Committee on Agriculture web site http://agriculture.house.gov has additional information on this and other subjects.

To *un*subscribe from the news releases mailinglist, simply send a *new* message with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field.

To: news-request@aglist.house.gov
Subject: unsubscribe

Fw: Radanovich: Valley Agriculture Needs Water, Not Committees andStudies

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

---

From: "Pederson, Spencer"
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:25:32 -0500
To: Pederson, Spencer<Spencer.Pederson@mail.house.gov>
Subject: Radanovich: Valley Agriculture Needs Water, Not Committees and Studies

       
For Immediate Release

Contact: Spencer Pederson

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Phone: 202-225-4540

Radanovich: Valley Agriculture Needs Water, Not Committees and Studies

Washington DC – Congressman George Radanovich (R-Mariposa) today released the following statement after participating in the Department of Interior's California water forum.

"Without a doubt, the long term solutions to solve California's water problems are a heavy lift and I appreciate Secretary Salazar and Senator Feinstein's commitment to the issue.  However, what is needed right now is an immediate, short term solution for San Joaquin Valley agriculture.  Unfortunately, we are no closer to short term solutions than we were a year ago.

"It's time to get our priorities straight and put people before fish.  If the Department of Interior thinks government committees and lengthy studies are necessary, let's focus on those efforts after we take care of our farmer's economic future.

 "In order to move California's water supply, storage and infrastructure forward, the three major stakeholders—agriculture, urban and environmental—need to be moving together, equally gaining and sacrificing.  Today, that is not the case—environmental and urban water users dominate the landscape, receiving 90 percent of their priorities, leaving California agriculture on the short end of the stick.

"Valley agriculture needs to see immediate results, particularly when it comes to the interim projects like Two Gates and the Canal Intertie that provide a bridge to long term water solutions to for California.

 "While I applaud the efforts to achieve a guaranteed long term water supply for all California, the short term effort to produce an interim solution for agriculture gets an 'F'."

###

       

Spencer Pederson

Press Secretary

Legislative Assistant

U.S. House of Representatives

Congressman George Radanovich

p. 202/225.4540

f. 202/225.3402

Fw: Taxing Soda Could Trim State Deficits (and Waistlines), Says Report

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

---

From: News from CSPI
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:31:59 -0500
To: News from CSPI<cspinews@cspinet.org>
Subject: Taxing Soda Could Trim State Deficits (and Waistlines), Says Report

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, September 30, 2009                
Contact:  Jeff Cronin, 202-777-8370, or Stacey Greene, 202-777-8316

Taxing Soda Could Trim State Deficits (and Waistlines), Says Report

"I actually think it's an idea that we should be exploring.  
There's no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda."
—  President Barack Obama to Men's Health

WASHINGTON—Even as 48 states and the District of Columbia are facing grim budget shortfalls, only 25 states currently impose special taxes on soda and other beverages with added sugar, and all of those taxes are very small.  And according to a new paper from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, states could generate a total of more than $10 billion per year by levying a tax of 7 cents per 12-ounce can of Coke or Mountain Dew.  If implemented by Congress in the form of a national excise tax, that $10 billion could make an important contribution toward paying for health coverage for all Americans.

Plus, says CSPI, the decrease in soda consumption due to a higher price would help reduce the incidence of obesity, diabetes and other costly chronic diseases. Americans spend approximately $147 billion a year on medical expenditures related to obesity, of which half is paid with Medicare and Medicaid dollars.

CSPI's report comes shortly after seven prominent nutrition experts made the case for a tax on soda in a separate paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Earlier this month, the prestigious Institute of Medicine included soda taxes as one of several policies that should be adopted to help reduce obesity, and a Brookings Institution committee on health reform, led by former Medicare and Food and Drug Administration director Mark McClellan, issued a report that called for a soft-drink tax.  President Obama's interview with Men's Health magazine is further renewing interest in soda taxes, according to CSPI.  

"President Obama is exactly right when he say kids are drinking too much soda," said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson.  "Soda is dirt cheap and promotes expensive and debilitating diseases, which in turn run up health-care costs at all levels of government.  Federal, state, and even local governments would be wise to institute or increase taxes on a product that causes so much medical and financial harm."

Also recently, a joint statewide study from the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research confirmed that soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages are one of the largest—if not the largest—contributors to obesity. According to thestudy, the 24 percent of adults who drink one or more non-diet sodas a day are 27 percent more likely to be overweight than adults who don't drink soda.

        On its web site, CSPI has a Liquid Candy Calculator that enables legislative staffers or citizens to calculate the revenue their state could raise from sales or excise taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages.

        The Senate Finance Committee raised the prospect of soda taxes and higher alcohol taxes when it released a policy options paper on health care reform in May.  Such taxes were not included in the draft legislation released by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) yesterday, nor have they been offered in an amendment during the committee's ongoing markup, but CSPI and other health groups are still urging members of both houses of Congress to include soda taxes in the final legislation.  

        "About half of the states have small soda taxes and there certainly hasn't been any outrage over them," said Jacobson.  "If the Senate Finance Committee decides to leave these billions and billions of dollars on the table, I suspect more state legislatures will tap soda taxes to help pay for their own prevention efforts.  In fact, more states could do what New York City is doing, and fund an ad campaign designed to discourage soda consumption."

###

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is a nonprofit health advocacy group based in Washington, DC, that focuses on nutrition, food safety, and pro-health alcohol policies.  CSPI is supported by the 900,000 U.S. and Canadian subscribers to its Nutrition Action Healthletter and by foundation grants.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To unsubscribe from CSPI news releases, reply to this
message with the word 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.

To edit your preferences, visit:
http://www.cspinet.org/new/newsjournal.html

Communications Department
Center for Science in the Public Interest
1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW  Suite 300
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 332-9110
cspinews@cspinet.org