In the 1890s, the University of Illinois published a report about an unusual but promising new crop known as the “Japan pea.” By 1914, a handful of Illinois farmers began testing this crop on a few hundred acres. As research grew, Illinois farmers adopted its discoveries, and today they rank No. 1 in the nation and fifth in the world for growing what is now known as soybeans.
Research has also led to multiple uses for soybeans, like high-protein flours and pastes that can quickly reverse malnutrition in starving children and families, highlighting the important role of American farmers in U.S. foreign policy. During President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, our farmers provided food that fed European refugees of World War II. From Presidents Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan, American-grown food aid helped fight the spread of Communism in vulnerable nations experiencing economic crisis and political upheaval.
Today, food aid helps feed hungry people in countries where drought, political turmoil or natural disaster strike. In fact, American farmers provide nearly $2 billion per year in food aid, shipped in special bags printed with a big American flag and the words “This Product is a Gift from the American People.” This is noticed by desperately hungry families in some of the world’s most despairing corners — the right thing to do, and the smart thing to do, to be sure.
On Day One, President Donald Trump recklessly signed an order to freeze U.S. foreign aid, and asked Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, to gut the U.S. Agency for International Development, the biggest distributor of food aid for the poorest people in the world. Instead of addressing programs claimed to be wasteful or excessive, they destroyed an entire agency that accounts for less than 1% of the federal budget, ending lifesaving programs that help others abroad and us at home.
As a result, the USAID-funded Soybean Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was closed, and 30 staff were laid off. These Illinois experts worked for 12 years to develop new soybean strains and planting techniques so that 80,000 farmers in sub-Saharan Africa could reduce poverty and hunger and become self-reliant. Trump said these types of USAID programs are run by “radical lunatics,” and Musk called it a “criminal organization” that should “die.” The Illinois researchers laid off, as well as the thousands of farmers they helped, would disagree.
The U.S. government walked away, but this Illinois lab may survive another year, scaled back, after a nonprofit from Europe stepped in with a small grant. Experts noted that hungry families in low-income nations may survive, too, receiving food aid in bags marked instead with the flag of China, whose government sees a strategic opening to win their hearts and minds.
Research is the foundation of farming. But U.S.-funded agriculture research has dropped in the past 30 years, while China’s investments have risen eight times, surpassing the U.S. 10 years ago. Today, China is the world’s biggest funder of government-funded farm research.
These past six and a half months, Trump’s confusing off-again, on-again firings of federal employees mean that we will fall even further behind China. We’re now at risk of losing skilled scientists at the USDA-funded Peoria Agricultural Research Lab, whose sole purpose is to invent new ways to use farm-grown products. Other USDA employees who have been fired or stepped down include veterinarians who stop contagious animal diseases from entering the U.S. that can kill hogs, cattle and chickens, which can cause high prices for pork, beef and eggs.
Trump has hopes to close another U of I lab, the Soybean Germplasm Collection, a genetic seed bank whose scientists have cured crop diseases, improved yields and increased nutrition in soybeans, again creating new markets for Illinois farmers. If this lab closes, there is one remaining lab — in China.
The American Farm Bureau Federation says that China’s investments in agricultural research are a serious threat to the competitiveness to U.S. farmers, and I agree. That’s why I have authored legislation that would provide mandatory increases for the next 10 years in federal farm and food research.
From his unpredictable trade policies, his attacks on research, and his decision to shutter USAID, Trump’s actions, too, will damage the competitiveness of U.S. farmers and hand China the global lead in research.
Dick Durbin is a U.S. senator from Illinois.