Purdue, MSU Silent on Cuts There
President Donald Trump is calling for an "America First" attitude from all government agencies and authorized the defunding of many institutions, including the U.S. Agency for International Aid, due to overspending and suspected corruption. Leesburg farmer and former ambassador Kip Tom applauded the move, calling for accountability, while one Feed the Future Lab director called for justice for humanitarian research.
Kip Tom, Leesburg farmer and former ambassador to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture, observed some of the work USAID did during his ambassadorship in Rome. During an interview with the Exchange, Tom spoke about the effects on the program.
"I saw them as important in delivering the food aid, and I saw what that did, but when I looked at the development side—I looked at the development aid that they supported—I just didn't see oftentimes the successes that we should expect as Americans."
He added that the U.S. has always been a leader in global humanitarian aid, and Tom expects this to continue, even as the Department of Government Efficiency reduces USAID to bare bones
"I think this comprehensive review is good. I hope that we are able to find a place where we can still do humanitarian aid, we can still do the development aid," Tom said. "But it needs to be proper, proper-sized, and we need to take care of the people here in the United States of America, too. We have farmers who are struggling, we have people who are food insecure."
But when it comes to development aid, Tom sees the private sector making larger strides in research.
On the other side of the spectrum is Peter Goldsmith, director of the USAID Feed the Future Lab for Soybean Value Chain Research in the University of Illinois Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics. He says the labs still have their place.
According to the Feed the Future Innovation Lab there were 19 such labs defunded by the USAID shutdown, including Purdue University, Michigan State University and Goldsmith's University of Illinois.
Purdue served as the leading research institution for food processing and post-harvest food handling, with a focus on Kenya and Senegal. The lab was working to create accessible, nutritional food through improving drying and storage of agricultural goods on smallholder farms. The university also led research in food safety, attempting to address food safety issues in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal and Uganda.
A spokesperson for Purdue University declined to comment for this story. Michigan State University did not return any of the Exchange's calls and emails.
MSU was leading a study in conjunction with Purdue to study legume systems in cowpea, pigeon pea and common beans in order to increase food security and decrease poverty through the improvement of soil fertility, use as livestock feed and fodder, income generation and utilization of the products as nutrition for people. The research focused on Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia.
The Soybean Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois has spent decades establishing a soybean market for American agriculture in over two dozen countries across Africa. The agency is now being defunded by the Department of Government Efficiency in the effort to eradicate inefficiencies in the U.S. government system.
According to a Feb. 3 statement from the U.S. Department of State, "The United States Agency for International Development has long strayed from its original mission of responsibly advancing American interests abroad, and it is now abundantly clear that significant portions of USAID funding are not aligned with the core national interests of the United States."
But Goldsmith said the SIL "has been very effective in establishing the soybean as the dominant protein and oil crop (in Africa).The soy market has tripled since we have been there."
He also noted that the market has started shifting from favoring palm oil to soybean oil.
"The soy market has made tremendous gains," he said. "SIL has figured it out. We've been very effective."
Goldsmith said the development of a soy market in Africa benefits U.S. farmers the most. But since USAID was defunded, "the conversion to soy has ceased."
He said SIL has forged the path toward soybean trade between the U.S. and Africa. The first hurdle the lab identified was the lack of climate-hardy equipment. The lab has developed two machines: a thresher and a combine.
The thresher was completed in 2016, and can process cowpea, maize, millet, sorghum and rice in addition to soybean. It increased the process, which was previously done by hand, in 27 African countries by 80%.
Until that time, Goldsmith said ag equipment had been donated for use, but they mostly failed and created a machinery graveyard.
"We established a new model for mechanization that had appropriate technologies adapted to the African setting," he said.
Now, the threshers are fabricated by 200 different processionals across the 27 countries.
"Admittedly, these are long-term ideas. I'm not increasing trade today, we're derisking a market, getting it ready for the private sector," Goldsmith said.
"Currently, every country outside of South Africa is not allowed to plant with genetically modified crops," he said. Without SIL on the continent, the exposure to the biotech crops halts, and the market will exclude GM production, which is a large percentage of U.S. product.
According to Goldsmith, SIL's objective is an "America First" agenda.
When asked about the defunding of Feeding the Future Labs like the Soy Innovation Lab, Tom said it is important to keep American expectations in perspective. He said USAID, along with many other government agencies, has grown too large, and its size inhibits its effectiveness.
"I applaud what the president is doing right now," Tom said, referencing accountability. "We need to understand there's going to be some pain, but hopefully America will stand up and still be a good humanitarian actor in doing what we need to do in development and soft diplomacy around the world."
Tom suggested incorporating agricultural checkoff dollars in research and development support, rather than relying on government programs. He also urges the private sector to get more involved.
"We've got a lot of checkoff dollars in the soybean accounts," he said. "Last year, they had close to $150 million in their accounts."
"I think you'll see some of these different initiatives stood back up again" without as much cost involved he said.
Following the thresher success, SIL began researching ways to introduce a viable combine to the same market.
But "that's a dead stop," Goldsmith said.
The combine vision was introduced during the World Food Prize demonstration in November and was ready for the market.
"Computer-assisted design plans had been developed by an African manufacturer," he said. "That is where things stop as there is no more funding to rollout training, beta testing and marketing."
This year was going to be its debut in fabrication.
But, he added, all the lab's success gets thrown out without USAID support. Goldsmith said the closing of SIL and other Feed the Future Labs is a hard loss.
"The land grant system now loses 19 crown jewel innovation labs, across 17 states, that delivered high and measurable impact on very little investment," he said in a post on LinkedIn, a professional networking social media site. "U.S. soybean farmers lose one of their best tools to expand their markets and U.S. standards, globally. Local economies in emerging markets lose soybean as an incomparable engine growing wealth, prosperity and economic development.
"International security is a loser, as local populations now fall back into poverty, unrest and migration, due to greater food insecurity. U.S. influence loses as innovation labs operate on the ground in direct collaboration with hundreds of local businesses, organizations and governments building strong and lasting friendships.
"Today we all lose. It is a shame. Innovation labs like SIL are an investment for good on so many levels."
Tom said sending or withholding aid is more complicated than whether or not the U.S. has the capacity to provide for other countries' needs.
"The complexity that's involved when you get into a lot of these nations that are in a civil war or a manmade war, it gets pretty tough to figure out whether or not you're having an impact," he said.
He gave the example of the World Food Programs monthly food aid to Yemen, of which 40-50% is stolen by rebels.
"Those are tough choices to make. Do you cut off that aid? Or do you continue to deliver it and fuel the war?"
Tom said the solution is diplomacy, which he believes would stop wars and conflicts before they start. He said if the U.S. proactively engages with other countries, fewer conflicts erupt.
Tom said USAID was a main supporter of the Food and Agriculture Organization, but he has not seen "resilience" and "capacity" from the FAO.
"Maybe it's time to take a look at the $450 million we put into FAO every year and say, 'How can we repurpose that?'" he said.
He said that as a leader in humanitarian aid, America must keep itself strong in order to increase impact on humanitarian aid and development across the globe.
"The U.S. has always responded with capacity and compassion to those truly in need," he said. "If we're not efficient with our money, we're not helping the people who are in need."
Goldsmith said any time away from nations the U.S. is influencing for a market is harmful.
"We work with hundreds of partners (internationally), bringing U.S. values to those groups," he said. "If we're not there, somebody else will be."
Goldsmith hopes SIL will be reinstated so the agency can follow through with the newly developed combine and begin research on a planter for African regions. The SIL director is currently in talks with stakeholders, delegations and administrators about a review of the organization.
"We think that the innovation labs are a good fish that got caught in a very large net," he said. He hopes officials will see the lab's advancements for U.S. farmers and national interests, and return funding.
Other labs were housed by: University of California-Davis, Kansas State University, Missouri State University, University of Nebraska, Cornell University, Washington State University, The Pennsylvania State University, Mississippi State University, University of Georgia, University of Florida and others. These were studying aquaculture, peanuts, legumes, horticulture, irrigation, nutrition, livestock and sustainability among other things.