Contact: Ernie Blazar 202.224.7627 Shana Stribling 202.224.0309
Thursday, July 17, 2003

WASHINGTON - Senator Kit Bond today announced that he has secured the approval from a key Senate committee for $15 million to fund high priority agriculture projects throughout Missouri.

"This money will help Missouri farmers stay at the cutting edge of agricultural science," said Bond, a senior member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee which approved the Senator's requests for these items in the fiscal year 2004 Agricultural Appropriations bill. "It is an investment in making the rural way of life not just viable and sustainable, but profitable and more rewarding."

The next step for the legislation is to win approval from the full U.S. Senate and then it must be reconciled with the version passed by the House of Representatives. Then, of course, it must be signed into law by the President of the United States. The projects:

* $5.5 million for watershed conservation projects including the Big Creek-Hurrican Creek (Carroll and Livingston counties), Grassy Creek (Lewis and Marion counties), Moniteau Creek (Boone, Howard, and Randolph counties), East Locust Creek (Sullivan and Putnam counties), West Fork of Big Creek (Davies and Harrison counties), East Yellow Creek (Chariton, Linn and Sullivan counties), McKenzie Creek (Wayne county), Hickory Creek (Newton county), East Fork of Grand River (Harrison and Worth counties), Troublesome Creek (Know, Lewis, and Marion counties) and the Upper Locust Creek (Sullivan and Putnam) projects.

* $2.7 million to plan and design the National Plant and Genetics Security Center at the University of Missouri - Columbia campus. This is a collaborative effort between the ARS Plant Genetics Research Unit and the University of Missouri which has resulted in a nationally recognized crop biotechnology effort in maize, soybeans and wheat.

* $1.5 million for the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI), a unique, dual-university research program including the Center for National Food and Agricultural Policy (CNFAP) at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and the Trade and Agricultural Policy Division of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD/TAPD) at Iowa State University, Ames.

* $1.3 million for the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI), a center in Columbia, Missouri dedicated to examining and publicizing how public policy impacts rural America with the University of Nebraska and Iowa State University)

* $1 million for the National Center for Soybean Technology at UMC.

* $750,000 for the Virtual Plant Database enhancement project at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

* $603,000 for the Missouri Alliance for Biotechnology at UMC College of Agriculture.

* $400,000 for Vitis Gene Discovery, a plant genomics effort directed at grapes in collaboration with Southwest Missouri State University and University of Missouri - Columbia.

* $397,000 for Crop Diversification at the Thomas Jefferson Institute in Columbia

* $292,000 for Beef Technology Transfer at the University of Missouri - Columbia

* $200,00 for Internet-based agriculture classes through the Missouri Farm Bureau and Southwest Missouri State University.

* Soybean Geneticists - Funding is provided for five soybean geneticists to continue their work in cooperation with the University of Missouri in Columbia and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis.

Senator Bond served Missouri twice as Governor and now continues his service to the state in his third term in the United States Senate.