Courtesy of USDA/APHIS
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture have announced a new competitive grant to allow the department to quickly address diseases and pests like the New World Screwworm. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins posted on X, “Emerging pests and diseases such as NWS can quickly devastate American agriculture if we are not prepared. These pests and diseases don’t wait for the cyclical nature of competitive grants — and our response should not wait either! The National Institute of Food and Agriculture has launched a NEW competitive grant opportunity that is open year-round to ensure our scientists can quickly respond to develop and deploy solutions to protect American agriculture when a potential threat is identified. Farm security is national security!”
The grant opportunity is called the “Rapid Response to Emerging and Re-emerging Pest and Disease Events Across Food and Agricultural Systems,” and according to the institute, “This program area priority is designed to rapidly deploy strategies and fill knowledge and information gaps to protect the Nation’s food and agricultural supply chains—and the people who support and rely on them—during and after the emergence or re-emergence of pests and diseases associated with animal production systems and/or the emergence or re-emergence of invasive diseases, insects, and weeds associated with plant production systems and/or toxins affecting the health of either plant or animal production systems.”
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.