66 Phytopathology News

The APS Public Policy Board (PPB) met in Washington, DC, February 28–March 3, 2010, for its annual meetings with agency administra-tors and others. PPB members Jeri Barak, Rick Bennett, Barb Christ, Jacque Fletcher, Phyllis Himmel, Scot Hulbert, Carol Ishimaru, Jim Mueller, John Sherwood, Jim Steadman, PPB’s Early Career Intern Steve Vasquez, and APS Members Mary Palm and Frank Wong joined APS’s Washington liaison Kellye Eversole and Lori Leach of Eversole Associates, and APS staff member Michelle Bjerkness, in a series of meet-ings with agency and program administrators to continue to build cooperative relationships and to address issues of common interest.

PPB met with representatives of the United States Department of Agriculture (the Office of the Secretary; the Office of Homeland Security; Office of Pest Management Policy; the National Plant Disease Recovery System; APHIS; ARS; Office of Research, Education, and Economics; NIFA; and the Food Safety Inspection Service). In addition, we met with Kathleen Merrigan, USDA deputy secretary, and Molly Jahn, acting undersecretary for research, education, and economics at USDA. Other agencies visited included the Environmental Protection Agency (Office of Pesticide Programs), the National Science Foundation (Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, Bio-Integrative Organismal Systems, Bio-Biological Infrastructure, and Mathematical & Physical Sciences), the National Institutes of Health (Extramural Research), the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, and the Food & Drug Administration (Center for Food Safety and Nutrition).

PPB members prepared and distributed several white papers highlighting current public policy-related priorities of APS and of the

Public Policy Update

board, including the future of education in plant pathology and the agricultural sciences, a proposal for a National Plant Microbial Germplasm System (NPMGS), and human pathogens on plants (white papers have been posted at www.apsnet.org/members/ppb). In each meeting, two to three issues selected by PPB as the highest priorities for that agency were discussed and action items were agreed upon. Many agencies also updated us on their priorities and identified areas in which APS could be helpful to their work. Key initiatives and future actions determined include:

Education. An APS ad hoc committee assessed the need for broadly trained plant pathologists for future positions in extension, industry, biosecurity, plant breeding, diagnostics, and international centers. Ph.D. graduates today are more narrowly trained than at any time in the history of land-grant colleges of agriculture. This educational specialization is contrary to the needs of U.S. agriculture as articulated in a 2009 NAS report, “Transforming agricultural education for a changing world” and in a 2009 report of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, “Human capacity development: The road to global competitiveness and leadership in food, agriculture, natural resources, and related sciences.” The underlying theses of both of these reports are that 1) agricultural science needs to be elevated in the eyes of the public and included among the STEM disciplines; and 2) today’s agricultural science students need broad training to be properly prepared for the workplace and our global economy. Because APS believes that graduate students are crucial for future scientific advancements and a sustainable workforce, PPB requested the following support from agency administrators: 1) increases in grant funding for research training in the plant sciences; 2) more NSF and USDA fellowships for agricultural

During the PPB reception held at USDA, Kathleen Merrigan, USDA deputy secretary, stopped by to learn about APS’s priorities; pictured (left to right) Jan Leach, Jacque Fletcher, Kathleen Merrigan, and Barb Christ.

The APS Public Policy Board met with representatives from USDA, NSF, NIH, EPA, NSABB, and FDA during their three-day visit to DC in March.

APS Public Policy Board Holds Spring Meetings in the Nation’s CapitalJacque Fletcher, APS Public Policy Board Chair, jacqueline.fletcher@okstate.edu

plant sciences; and 3) at least $1 million for plant sciences fellowships as part of the NIFA Higher Education Challenge Grants Program.

NPMGS. APS, in cooperation with federal, industry, and professional society partners, has developed plans for an NPMGS to preserve these irreplaceable and invaluable resources. The NPMGS will consist of distributed, expert-curated, taxon-specific repositories linked through a searchable cyber database with a central repository to maintain back-up collections. This cost-effective network of linked collections will ensure that reference strains are preserved and accessible to the broader scientific community, as well as law enforcement and homeland security officials who safeguard our national agricultural system. The infrastructure for this system will be connected to active, existing research programs at federal and academic institutions through a joint venture between a federal government initiative, existing structures such as the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System, and existing university and industry programs. Strong support for this initiative is building within USDA, as well as NSF, NIH, and OSTP. PPB specifically called for the commitment of $2.1 million in funding for the USDA-ARS to adapt, modify, and populate the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) and curate/preserve back-up microbial collections at the U.S. National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP) in Fort Collins, CO.

Food safety. Increased concern about contamination of plant foods by the human pathogens E. coli and Salmonella have highlighted the complex relationship between such pathogens and plants. Plant pathologists, with our knowledge and tools for investigating phytopathogen-plant interactions, have much to offer in advancing our understanding of the nature of human pathogen-plant interactions—how they are initiated, how they develop, and how they can be prevented. APS activities over the past year, led by PPB in close association with the APS Food Safety Interest Group (FSIG), included a visit of FDA representatives to the APS Annual Meeting in Portland, which resulted in an invitation to APS to organize a research symposium at the FDA Center for Food Safety and Nutrition in College Park, MD. The same symposium also was presented at the USDA in Washington, DC. In our March visits, we proposed a focus on research to gain fundamental and practical knowledge of human pathogen-plant interactions, to include 1) adding research to the priorities of the White

Phytopathology News 67

PPB continued conversations with several EPA representatives at their offices in DC.

House Food Safety Working Group; 2) funding for an interdisciplinary workshop to bring plant pathologists and members of the food safety community together, including agency leaders, researchers from academia, government, and industry, funders, and regulators to prioritize research needs to combat this public health crisis; and 3) the establishment of a new interagency funding initiative for research to address the lack of fundamental knowledge of human pathogens in association with plants.

General funding support. Support for research funding is a continuing activity for PPB. This year, the PPB visits in DC took place just prior to the announcement of the new NIFA research funding programs. While this timing prevented discussion of the specific priority areas with NIFA staff, PPB was encouraged to assist in getting the word out to the plant pathology community about the dates of the NIFA program announcements, the basis for the reorganization of the NIFA funding programs, and the availability of assistance for those seeking funding in the new programs. Announcements were disseminated to APS members through Phytopathology News, APS News Capsules, and e-mail.

The spring meetings also provided an exciting introduction for the PPB early career intern, Vasquez, to the world of public policy in the United States. Vasquez took the lead in presenting APS’s points of view in several of our meetings.

PPB represents our membership and our discipline, raising awareness, offering science-based information, and creating productive linkages between policy-makers and APS members. Check out our monthly informational column in Phytopathology News and our Legislative Updates in the electronic APS News Capsules. Write to any of us with your suggestions, concerns, ideas, kudos, and interests. Let us know what we are doing well and what we can do better. n

APS 2.0Root Rot, and Leaf Blotch, and Rust, Oh My!

Yes, you can see dogs singing, cats playing the piano, or that episode of “Lost” you missed last night, but did you know you can also view clips of members sharing why APS is important to them or a short video on Rhizoctonia root rot? The APS YouTube Channel, created by APS for APS members and others interested in plant disease, is your source for plant pathology videos from around the world. To date, the APS YouTube Channel—Plant Disease—has drawn more than 5,500 channel views and almost

10,000 upload views, along with more than 60 subscribers. It’s true, APS videos have gone viral!

While YouTube certainly can be entertaining, its easy-to-use format provides a unique online forum for connecting plant pathologists and allowing them to upload and share videos with colleagues in an instant. APS members have commented that they have used clips from the YouTube channel in class or to illustrate concepts to colleagues.

Take a look for yourself at www.youtube.com/user/plantdisease. Videos posted range from clips from APS PRESS DVDs to past years’ Dirtiest Jobs contest winners to APS members commenting on the society. Join the fun and subscribe to the channel to get notified when new videos are posted. While you’re at it, how about creating a few videos yourself? Chances are you can take a video from your cell phone or digital camera. Send your clips to Karen Deuschle (kdeuschle@scisoc.org) to have them uploaded to the channel. Don’t forget, the Office of Public Relations and Outreach is again sponsoring its Video Contest, where you can win $500 for your video. More details are online at www.scientificsocieties.org/aps/videocontest. If you already have plant pathology videos online, send Deuschle the link to your plant pathology videos to have them favorited. n

Funding OpportunityAFRI Foundational Program RFAsRequests for Applications (RFAs) have been released for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) flagship competitive grants program, the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). AFRI will solicit applications through a total of seven RFAs. The Foundational Program RFA calls for research projects that will build a foundation of knowledge critical for solving current and future societal challenges for each of the priorities set in the 2008 Farm Bill, which include: plant health and production and plant products; animal health and production and animal products; food safety, nutrition, and health; renewable energy, natural resources, and environment; agriculture systems and technology; and agriculture economics and rural communities. Five challenge area RFAs solicit projects to achieve significant and measurable outcomes in societal challenges: 1) childhood obesity prevention, 2) climate change, 3) food safety, 4) global food security, and 5) sustainable bioenergy. Awards made from these challenge area RFAs will be larger in size and longer in duration than awards in previous years, with funding up to $45 million over a five-year award period. NIFA expects that such grants will establish collaborations among multiple institutions and organizations and will integrate basic and applied research with deliberate education or extension programs. The seventh RFA is the Fellowships Grant Program RFA to fund opportunities for pre- and post-doctoral fellowship grants.

All AFRI RFAs are available on the NIFA website or through Grants.gov. Webinars focused on each AFRI RFA are also posted to the NIFA website to provide an introduction and overview of the RFA program areas. Please note that these webinars are not meant to replace carefully reading the RFA. A webinar has also been developed to describe opportunities available for 1890 universities, minority-serving institutions, and universities in USDA EPSCoR states. Please visit http://nifa.usda.gov/funding/afri/afri.html.

Comments regarding the AFRI RFAs are welcomed by NIFA and should be submitted in writing so that they are documented for consideration. Written stakeholder comments should be submitted by e-mail to: RFP-OEP@nifa.usda.gov (this e-mail address is intended only for receiving comments regarding this RFA and not for requesting information or forms) or via mail to: Policy and Oversight Branch, Office of Extramural Programs, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, STOP 2299, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-2299 U.S.A. If you submit comments, please be sure to state that you are responding to the AFRI Foundational Program RFA. n