Knoxville, TN
July 29 – 30, 2023
Saturday, July 29, 2023 – Joint Session
Participants
Fulya Baysal-Gurel
Flannery Bethel
Olga Bolden-Tiller
Jurine Brown
James G Brown Jr
Denise Cannatella
Keith Carver
Colmore Christian
Keith Coble
Robert Corley
Chris Crumrine
Claud Evans
Garey Fox
J. Robert Frazee
Katie Frazier
Caron Gala
Robert Gilbert
Alan Grant
Elvis Graves
Jim Handley
Larry Holmes
Jennifer Houston
Keith Howard
Edwin Jones
Kevin Kephart
Matt Lee
Gwendolyn Lewis
Latif Lighari
Jayson Lusk
Hildreth Macon
Bonnie McGee
Rodd Moesel
George Paris
Paul Patterson
Phil Perry
Tekedra Pierre
Nick Place
J Noland Ramsey
Chandra Reddy
Douglas Steele
Ashley Stokes
Gary Thompson
Jim Tracy
Barrett Vaughn
Anwar Walker
Eric Young
8:00 – 8:10
Welcome and Introductions – Nick Place
8:10 – 8:30
Highlights from UTIA – Keith Carver (PowerPoint)
- Farmers taking advantage of Extension mental health programs
- Hosted a precision livestock farming conference. 219 people from 22 different countries
- Opened robotic milking facility, increases efficiency
- Herbert College: Up 8% in enrollment last year, another 8% this year
- Need more Veterinarians. Will expand enrollment over 40% over the next five years
- 4-H Updates
- 136,000 youth participated in 4-H club program, and in 5,000 classrooms
- 4 4-H youth development centers across Tennessee
- Students can receive college credit for 4-H programs
- Penny Russel: 4-H Youth Development Center at Lone Oaks Farm
- STEM: Science Technology Engineering Math. Approach to education that focuses on the hard sciences, develops critical thinking skills, and improves problem solving
- Engaging the senses increases concrete impacts of learning. Hands-on learning.
- Model of education at Lone Oaks Farm
- Create moments
- Engage curiosity
- Sciences Through Environmental Moments
8:30 – 9:00
NIFA Update – Kevin Kephart, USDA-NIFA
- Staff Updates
- 3 years ago, there was only 25% of the staff needed. NIFA has been working on building staff. Currently have 350 people compared to 80 people 3 years ago.
- New director: Dr. Manjit Misra
- Formerly Director of seed science program at Iowa State
- His priorities.
- 3 Cs: Collaboration, Cultivation, Communication
- Innovation
- Align with Executive leadership
- Dr. Dionne Tombs: Associate Director for Programs. In charge of deputy directors.
- Deb Hamernik announced retirement.
- NIFA Priorities
- 3-year Science and Research Strategy. Five priorities:
- Accelerating innovative technologies and practices
- Driving climate-smart solutions
- Bolstering nutrition security and health
- Cultivating resilient ecosystems
- Translating research into action
- Nutrition security
- Climate change
- Climate-smart ag
- Workforce development
- DEIA
- 3-year Science and Research Strategy. Five priorities:
- Executive Order 1440
- Justice 40 initiative: Government-wide program
- Clean energy
- Climate change
- Clean water
- Workforce development in green enterprises
- Justice 40 initiative: Government-wide program
- Executive Order 14096: Government-wide program
- Communities with environmental justice concerns
- Environmental justice strategic plans are due October 2024
- Internal mechanisms:
- White House environmental justice interagency council
- Environmental justice scorecard
- Annual reporting
- The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) will be forming a subcommittee that will develop a research plan
- Section 5 of EO: Research
- Will develop processes and committees with state, tribal, local government, universities, private sector
- Develop ethical standards for privacy of tribal communities
- Participatory research. Meaningful participation with communities
- Land-grant Climate Summit: coordinated by Colorado State University, but involves all four regions
9:00 – 9:40
Federal Budget, Farm Bill, and Legislative Update – Caron Gala, APLU (PowerPoint)
- Southern region is unique for two reasons:
- Region has access to highest numbers of Republicans
- Includes most 1890s
- Appropriations Update
- FY2024 requests
- Capacity
- Hatch, Evans-Allen, McIntire-Stennis, 1994 Research and Education, Smith-Lever
- Competitive
- RFA
- Capacity
- Cultivating champions for RFA
- House Dear Colleague Letter for RFA
- Letter circulated through Congress
- Bipartisan, led by Rep. Schrier (D-WA 8th), and Mann (R-KS, 1st)
- 56 signatures (9Rs/47Ds)
- Requests $500 million in support for RFA
- Debt limit agreement
- Fiscal Responsibility Act
- Imposes caps on most discretionary funding for FY2024 and FY2025
- Flat funding. Actually good news because most agencies lost funding, such as NIH, NSF
- Fiscal Responsibility Act
- Freedom caucus told Speaker McCarthy that they would not consider bills one by one. Need to see all twelve bills at once.
- FY2024 requests
- Farm Bill
- Biggest effort: $5 billion in mandatory for the Research Facilities Act
- Competitive account
- Historic, never requested mandatory before
- Justification for request:
- Gordian Report: $11.5 billion in deferred maintenance in research infrastructure at land-grants
- “Zero cost Farm Bill”
- Uncertain if IRA funds will be built into baseline
- CBO has yet to score
- All things point to an extension of the current Farm Bill. Maybe a December bill.
- Marker Bill H.R. 4135
- Includes $1 billion in mandatory funding for the RFA over the lifetime of the next Farm Bill
- Looking for House Rs to support
- Marker Bill in the Senate (D only)
- Hirono (lead)
- Bill includes $5 billion in mandatory funding for the RFA over the lifetime of the next Farm Bill
- Reauthorizes discretionary appropriations for RFA, capping funding at $3 billion per fiscal year (over 5 years)
- $1 billion in funding for ARS facilities
- Biggest effort: $5 billion in mandatory for the Research Facilities Act
- 2024 Elections
- All 435 seats up for election
- 1/3 of the Senate
- CARET Update
- CARET Strategic Plan. Focuses on four strategic initiatives: coalition-building, communication, training, accountability
- CARET and AHS Chairs met with Ag stakeholder groups such as:
- American Farm Bureau Federation
- Land-grant.org
9:40 – 10:00
APLU and FANR Update – Doug Steele, APLU
- ECOP Executive Director: Bill Hoffman
- Formerly at NIFA for 15 years
- FANR Focus: Monthly newsletter from the Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources (FANR) office
- APLU Annual Meeting: November in Seattle
Saturday July 29, 2023 – Southern AHS Session
Participants
Latif Lighari
Alan Grant
Paul Patterson
Chandra Reddy
Ashley Stokes
Garey Fox
Keith Howard
Nick Place
Olga Bolden-Tiller
Robert Corley
Kevin Kephart
TeKedra Pierre
Douglas Steele
Anwar Walker
Gary Thompson
Eric Young
Jim Handley
Fulya Baysal-Gurel
Robert Gilbert
Chris Crumrine
Keith Carver
Keith Coble
Jayson Lusk
Matt Lee
10:30 – 10:35
AHS Executive Committee Report – Keith Coble
- Much discussion on budget and Farm Bill
- Comments from the new NIFA Director, Manjit Misra
- Need to better define AHS role in advocacy
- Need to review BAA voting ,membership
- AHS might help make connections in key members’ offices
- Look at ,asking current national AHS meetings ,ore meaningful
- There will be a review of CARET Rules of Operation and, are needed changes. AHS will review the changes.
10:35 – 10:40
Nomination for Southern AHS Secretary (election at winter meeting) – Nick Place
- Keith Carver, University of Tennessee, Institute of Agriculture, agreed to be nominated as Secretary at the winter meeting.
10:40 – 10:50
Future Southern AHS meetings – Eric Young
- Winter 2024 – Feb 5, Atlanta, GA, during SAAS Conference
- Summer 2024 – late July, Kentucky to host
- Winter 2025 – Feb 3, Irvine, TX, during SAAS Conference
- Southern Mini Land-grant – June of 2025
- Discussed what the appropriate frequency and timing should be in future
- Need to avoid even number years due to SAAESD/ASRED joint spring meetings and 1890’s system wide conference
- June is the best month to avoid being close to other Southern association and CARET meetings
- After significant discussion, it was decided to hold future Southern mini Land-grant conferences on odd number years sometime during June
10:50 – 11:10
Communicating with Anti-Science Clientele – Shelli Rampold, Assistant Professor, Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications, UTIA, and Keith Coble
- PowerPoint
- Use field days to educate public on science in ag
- Citizen advocates can help communicate controversial issues
- Partner with NGO’s and other groups to help deliver message
- Public has trouble understanding risks and probabilities, so need to make it very simple
- People self-select groups of other like-minded people, so it’s difficult to change a group’s mind
- Public is becoming more distrustful of higher education
11:30 – 12:00
Institution Updates – All
- Institutional Updates
- Gary Thompson handouts
Sunday, July 30, 2023 – Joint Session
8:30 – 8:50
Highlights from TSU – Chandra Reddy (PowerPoint)
- Tennessee State University: 8,000 Students
- Strategic Goals:
- Workforce Development
- Global Food Security
- Climate Change Impact Mitigation
- Nutritional Security
- Academic Update: Enrollment
- 100 graduate students, all supported by research assistantships
- New programs:
- PhD in Agricultural Sciences
- Agribusiness and Leadership
- Research Highlights
- 1890s Center for Excellence for Natural Resources, Renewable Energy, and the Environment…
- Published 114 articles in peer-reviewed journals, of which 53 students were a senior author
- Cooperative Extension Program
- Largest Extension Program in all 1890 land-grants
- 25 Extension faculty
- Signature programs:
- TN New Farmer Academy for farmers and veterans: “Developing Successful Small Farm Enterprises”
- Established 2014
- 7-month certification program
- Small farms outreach for small, minorities, and women in agriculture
- TSU/TN Small Farms Expo and Farmer Recognition Program
- Organic, Urban, and Vertical agriculture
- Industrial hemp research and education
- Digital diagnosis of plans nutrition & hydroponics
- Biofuels and alternative energy
- Drones for farmers & 4-H STEM programs
- Food safety regulations for food handlers and businesses
- SNAP ED/EFNEW program
- Supporting families across the lifespan—Family life academy
- TN New Farmer Academy for farmers and veterans: “Developing Successful Small Farm Enterprises”
8:50 – 9:20
S-CARET – Jim Handley and Bob Frazee, National CARET Chair
- Caron Gala’s PowerPoint for CARET business meeting
- Debriefed 2023 CARET/AHS Meeting
- Reviewed CARET Strategic Plan progress
- Strategic Plan Implementation Committee
- Responsible for monitoring the plan, adjusting the plan where necessary (living document)
- Reinforces accountability strategic initiative
- Strategic Plan Implementation Committee
- Updating Rules of Operation
- Held election of new officers (effective Jan 1, 2024)
- Regional governance discussion/representation on EC
- Leadership/staff will be developing a guiding document
- Ad Hoc committee
- Website: Land-grant.org
- CARET Delegate Workbook
- For CARET to be effective:
- Take advantage of connections
- CARET is the community voice
- Ongoing dialogue
- Establish expectation that…
- Invest in CARET-AHS relationship
- Webinars: Fall 2023
- CARET/AHS Orientation
- “All about the Request”
S-AHS – Nick Place
- Communicating science in an era of skepticism presentation and discussion
- Governance
- Chair-elect: Keith Coble
- Secretary position vacant, Keith Carver agreed to be nominated
- Election at winter meeting
- Mini land-grants will now be every other year (previously every 3 years) in odd numbered years
- Next one in June 2025
- 2024 Southern Regional Meeting
- Kentucky
10:00
Adjourn