This was from POLITICO's Morning Agriculture report yesterday:
“CAN TRUMP SOLVE THE LAND-GRANT AG RESEARCH PROBLEM? Deferred maintenance on facilities at land-grant universities across the country is threatening to undercut U.S. agricultural research efforts and, with that, the long-term competitiveness of the American farmer. President Donald Trump’s promised infrastructure package could be a solution to the staggering backlog, but competition for federal dollars if Trump comes through will be fierce. Anticipating that, the Association for Public Land-grant Universities is working with farm groups to prepare a pitch to get Congress and the administration to use the expected infusion of cash to help fix or replace aging labs, greenhouses and other facilities, where researchers labor in an effort to develop solutions to feed the world’s growing population, Pro Agriculture’s Jenny Hopkinson reports this morning. The ask: somewhere in the ballpark of $10 billion over the next 10 years, a sum the groups believe can be leveraged into several times that in private investments.”