ASAS Distinguished Support of Animal Science Award

Richard Lugar

Richard Lugar was born and raised in Indiana. As a boy he often worked on the family farm, which he continues to manage. Senator Lugar is known widely as an advocate for U.S. leadership in the world and takes an active role in the leadership of American agriculture as Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Fortunate for all of us, he has used his legislative authority to make every effort to see increases in funding for what was a stagnant budget for competitive research in USDA. Earlier this year, many of you worked seemingly endless hours to submit grants to a new program, The Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems. Senator Lugar was instrumental in creating this $120 million Initiative. He spent countless hours surveying our community to ascertain the most important areas that could be incorporated into such legislation to have the greatest impact, rather than acting on his own accord or bowing to political pressures. He clearly went the extra mile to see this legislation approved and implemented. The new initiative will solve problems in animal agriculture through funding of key research-extension, multidisciplinary projects that are critical to the future competitiveness of our animal industries. The Initiative also targets other key areas in agriculture and food systems, including precision agriculture, food safety, human health and nutrition, and environmental stewardship.

Senator Lugar, we are extremely pleased that you chose agriculture, and specifically agricultural research, as your priority. Your efforts will affect us for years to come. We believe the establishment of this initiative will be viewed as a seminal event in shifting political attitudes toward agricultural research.