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Research Frontiers
The demands for research to support continued productivity gains, more and
varied products, better human health, enhanced biosecurity, animal welfare, envi-
ronmental benefits, and the vitality of rural communities are growing. At the
same time, scientific advancement, innovation, and technologic development in a
variety of fields, from molecular biology to ecosystem dynamics, offer new oppor-
tunities for research to meet the demands. The US Department of Agriculture' s
(USDA) Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area is uniquely
positioned to carry out research in these frontier areas that will serve important
public goals.
Agricultural research can address issues arising from five major phenomena:
globalization; emergence of pathogens; links between diet, health promotion, and
disease prevention; the relationship between agriculture and the environment;
and changes in rural communities. This chapter highlights research directions
related to each of those challenges that
.
Provide broad benefits for agriculture, the environment, and US citizens,
families, and communities.
· Anticipate the future and capture the unique opportunities of our time.
Enhance the global competitiveness of the US food and agricultural
system.
Push the REE research agenda to be more consumer-driven rather than
production-driven.
38
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RESEARCH FRONTIERS
39
GLOBALIZATION
Few recent economic changes equal those brought about by the globalization
of the US economy in the last quarter of the 20th century. Now, in addition to
managing their highly productive resource base, US agriculturalists must respond
to changing consumer demands for products and services and must manage tech-
nology, capital, and labor in globally integrated markets. Even with slowing
worldwide population growth, demand for livestock products will rise dramati-
cally with income growth in less-developed countries and lead to new market
opportunities and new global challenges to agricultural systems (Delgado et al.,
2001~. To be competitive in this global economy, US agriculture will need to
continue its technologic leadership and long-term productivity gains. That will
require new and more sophisticated technologies and systems for managing
information. Advances in information technology and in genomic sciences create
new possibilities for research to aid agriculture in delivering higher-quality
products and services. But as the global nature of potential risks posed by new
technology is better understood, there is also a need for more sophisticated evalu-
ation of such risks. Thus, globalization creates the demand for greater under-
standing of how global forces affect US agriculture, continued improvements in
agricultural productivity, and better ex ante evaluation of risks posed by new
technology.
Evaluate the Implications of Globalization for US Agriculture and
Agricultural-Research Priorities
The worldwide trend for countries to export and import a growing share of
goods, services, factors of production, and intellectual property will have impor-
tant effects on national economies, societies, and the environment. Research is
needed to provide a sound, scientific basis of policies and programs that address
those effects in the United States. Such research must be integrative and examine
the full effects of globalization and the environmental, social, and economic trade-
offs that policy-makers will face. One of the principal issues that research should
address is the relative benefits and costs of investing in different kinds of re-
search, including research that yields societal and environmental benefits. A
second issue is the challenge of removing policy distortions that bias incentives
in world agriculture. A third issue is the changing international balance of supply
and demand, including the continuing lack of food security2 in many nations.
iFactors of production are the resources available for producing goods, and typically include land,
labor, and capital. They may also include other natural resources, entrepreneurial ability, and human
capital.
2According to the Life Sciences Research Office, Federation of American Societies for Experimen-
tal Biology, food security exists when all people at all times have access to enough food for an active
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FRONTIERS IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
These three issues are linked both globally and domestically. Although such
research is currently undertaken by REE agencies, the scope of these issues will
require REE agencies to break from convention and undertake research that is
broader and more multidisciplinary and that involves collaborative partnerships
with diverse institutions and agencies in the United States and internationally.
A related area of research is better understanding of how worldwide changes
in intellectual property rights policy alter the public research agenda. Changes in
technology, in legal rulings, and in international agreements have increased the
return on investment from privately funded agricultural and food research and the
international spillovers from research investments (Parker et al., 2001; Reilly and
Schimmelpfenning, 2000~. Partnerships, joint ventures, and other alliances
between public and private institutions are becoming more common in agricul-
tural research. Such partnerships increase funding for some kinds of research and
improve the prospects for commercialization and use of new technologies, but at
the same time they raise concerns about whether private-sector interests are
playing too great a role in setting research priorities (Knudson, 2001; also see
Chapter 5~. Although such concerns are not peculiar to agriculture (e.g., Feller et
al., 2002; Heller and Eisenberg, 1998), the pace of change in agricultural research
institutions and in biotechnology raises many unresolved issues (Smith, K.R., et
al., 1999~. For example, will so-called interlocking patents on components of
new technologies or knowledge prevent applications to new discoveries when
they are owned by different parties (Smith, K.R., et al., 1999~? What role could
the public sector play in bringing these parties together for discoveries with broad
public benefit? Research is needed to understand better which new strategies for
research funding, public-private collaboration, and technology transfer will yield
the highest return on the public research investment.
Improve Agricultural Productivity and Product Quality
While Optimizing Resource Use
Conventional approaches to genetic improvement have successfully enhanced
the productivity, disease resistance and pest resistance, nutritive quality, and
safety of plants and animals. Further improvements are now possible through
genomics- and proteomics-based technologies. Although commercial investment
in biotechnology is high, REE should continue to have a key role in research that
is unlikely to be well supported by the private sector.
For example, REE must lead the preservation of the nation's agricultural
and healthy life. This includes at a minimum (1) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and
safe foods and (2) the assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in a socially acceptable way (for
example, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strate-
gies) (FASEB LSRO, 1990).
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41
genetic resources. The public sector also must invest in research to improve the
efficacy and specificity of gene-transfer technology. Important research includes
developing techniques for modifying plant and animal genomes, building models
and systems analyses that integrate basic knowledge about plants and animals
into gene selection, and synthesizing research findings on gene mapping and the
expression of proteins associated with quantitative traits (proteomics). Current
understanding of physiologic mechanisms and metabolic pathways does not pro-
vide sufficient precision for targeting genetic manipulations. Given the high cost
of genetic manipulations, especially in animals, greater precision and predictability
are essential. Collaboration among experimentalists and modelers will be essen-
tial to develop quantitative and dynamic models of interactions in physiologic
and metabolic systems; this will enable scientists to make specific improvements
and to understand the implications for the entire organism better.
Finally, the application of genomics-based approaches to environmental
issues is unlikely to have high commercial priority and should fall in the public-
sector portfolio. Advances in agricultural genomics resulting from research in
the above subjects will create new information resources and needs and conse-
quently enlarge the use of bioinformatics in agriculture for acquiring, processing,
storing, distributing, analyzing, and interpreting biologic information.
Precision agriculture is another frontier technology that could substantially
improve productivity while providing environmental benefits. This spatially
explicit approach to crop management involves tracking production and tailoring
inputs to meet the specific needs of subacre areas in individual fields. Recent
advances in the technologies that underlie precision agriculture have outstripped
their practical application. We need workable decision-support tools that will
enable farmers to adjust the timing and amounts of seed, fertilizer, water, and
pesticides to optimize production while minimizing waste and environmental
effects. Close collaboration among experimental scientists, statisticians, econo-
mists, engineers, and systems analysts will be essential for integrating experi-
mental research into decision-support systems and underlying models for crop,
animal, and environmental systems.
The scientific underpinnings of farming approaches that seek to minimize
agricultural inputs and adverse environmental effects broadly captured by the
terms sustainable, alternative, and organic have burgeoned in recent decades
(e.g., Robertson and Harwood, 2001~. Despite rapidly expanding consumer
demand for organic or low-input agricultural products, funding of related research
by the agricultural-technology sector has been chronically low because few dis-
coveries can be commercialized. Consequently, REE must play a critical role in
supporting both fundamental research on the functioning of agroecosystems and
applied research on methods of enhancing production by modifying or augment-
ing agroecosystem processes. Other important research will include assessments
of economic competitiveness and barriers to user adoption of such farming
practices.
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Evaluate the Economic, Social, Health, and Environmental Effects of
Agricultural Technologies and Practices
Understanding the full potential effects social, economic, health, environ-
mental, and ethical of new technologies and practices, including their global
effects, is crucial to sound research choices and to technology transfer. New
technologies often have enormous promise to enhance people's lives. However,
they also raise important questions about environmental and health risks, the
distribution of benefits and risks, and public values and ethics. Exploring such
questions early in the R&D process will focus investment in technology develop-
ment on efforts most likely to generate the greatest public benefits.
The production of genetically modified food, for example, has raised new
issues related to the appropriate level of health and environmental review, product
labeling, and public communication. Public debate has highlighted differences in
perceptions and values among segments of society and among scientists who
have different expertise. Other emerging technologies and practices will raise
similar issues. Recent and current examples include the use of recombinant
bovine somatotropin in dairy cattle, development of antibiotic resistance from
use of antimicrobials in the livestock and dairy industries, the causes of and
solutions to coastal hypoxia, and the availability and uses of human genetic infor-
mation.
Optimizing the benefits of new agricultural technologies and practices will
require research on risk assessment and communication, applied ethics, public
values, and negotiated decision-making processes. Some efforts, such as those to
assess the ecologic effects of new technologies and practices on near and distant
ecosystems, will require research to develop more effective analytic frameworks
and methods.
Publicly supported research on new technologies must be coupled with public
education that demystifies scientific and technical information for the general
public and provides balanced information about benefits and risks. Public-
education efforts should be coupled with social-science research and discussion
to ensure that information about public understanding and values is incorporated
into the initial stages of new technology R&D. REE is uniquely positioned to
provide leadership in this respect because of its dual responsibilities for research
and education.
EMERGING PATHOGENS AND OTHER HAZARDS IN THE
FOOD-SUPPLY CHAIN
Advances in the science of public health, changes in how consumers obtain
and prepare food, and increases in international trade in food products and ani-
mals all increase the profile of food safety and animal and plant health (Unnevehr
and Roberts, 2002~. Preharvest and postharvest foodborne pathogens such as
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43
Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella enteritidis, Listeria monocytogenes, and E. cold
0157:H7 continue to emerge and to pose threats to human health (Hughes,
2001; Todd, 2001; Unnevehr and Roberts, 2002~. Furthermore, the long-term
consequences of many foodborne illnesses are only now being uncovered, such
as the link between salmonella infection and rheumatoid arthritis. Understanding
and reducing foodborne risks to human, animal, and plant health will require new
research that will ultimately support both private and public efforts to eliminate
hazards. New scientific tools, such as genetic "fingerprinting" of microbial patho-
gens and rapid detection methods, provide new opportunities for epidemiology
and risk assessment. The threat of bioterrorism lends urgency to those research
needs.
Reduce the Risks of Bioterrorism
The risk of a terrorist attack on the United States that targets the food or
water supply is a critical national concern (Frist, 2002~. Several agencies with
different and complementary expertise are collaborating to reduce the threat and
to increase our capability to minimize the loss of life and other consequences if
such a disaster occurs.
REE is already a key contributor to collaborative federal efforts against
bioterrorism, and the demand for further contributions will increase in the decades
ahead. The growing international trade in food products and ingredients will
multiply the number of possible points of introduction of harmful agents into
nonprocessed and processed foods, and the virulence of emerging and potential
pathogens heightens the risk. But REE' s ability to provide the research needed to
avert a biologic attack via the food or water supply has declined in recent years
because of reduced funding. There is an unprecedented need for scientists with
appropriate training and for upgraded facilities to conduct biohazard research.
Within REE are laboratories that would be high-priority candidates for improved
security.
Improve Microbiologic Food Safety
Serious gaps persist in the nation's ability to rapidly and effectively manage
known and emerging preharvest and postharvest pathogens, that is, to detect,
trace the origins of, and eliminate pathogens in the farm-to-table food chain.
Although recent research has improved food safety and the US food supply is one
of the safest in the world, the system's growing complexity and dynamism con-
tinue to generate needs for information (Kuzminski,1994~. For example, current
food-consumption trends toward more fresh, uncooked, fast, and imported foods
raise questions about the sources of and solutions to food contamination (Hughes,
2001; Todd, 2001; Unnevehr and Roberts, 2002~. At the same time, improved
scientific understanding of pathogen evolution and virulence from genomics
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research has opened important new research avenues related to the identification
and origins of pathogens. Research on the epidemiology and public-health con-
sequences of microbial pathogens must be integrated with research on control
and monitoring of pathogens. Multidisciplinary research for risk assessment, risk
management, and risk communication has the potential to make a major contribu-
tion to the safety of the US food supply. Such research must be dynamic and
evolving if it is to "anticipate future microbial hazards and construct barriers to
disease" (IFT,2002~. Timely application of new discoveries will assist the USDA
action agencies in addressing their own emerging needs through applied research.
Understand and Minimize the Hazards of Food Allergens and Toxicants
Food allergens3 and toxicants4 and their mechanisms of action are poorly
understood, and this hampers the development of prevention strategies and
therapies (FDA, 1992; NRC, 2000b). Improved knowledge, including adequate
methods for screening novel allergens or toxicants, is increasingly urgent in light
of the concern that transgenic or conventional breeding technologies may create
unexpected allergenic or toxic properties in food through pleiotropic processes
(NRC, 2000b). Moreover, it is uncertain whether transgenic techniques are more
likely than conventional plant-breeding techniques to increase the risks related to
allergens, toxicants, or other unintended consequences (NRC, 2000b). Two
examples of unexpected allergenic or toxic properties of transgenic technologies
are the transfer of potential allergenicity from a Brazil nut gene introduced into
soybean to enhance its nutritional content (Nordlee et al., 1996) and the Bacillus
thuringiensis Cry 9C protein, which does not degrade rapidly in gastric fluids and
raised concerns of potential allergenicity when it was inadvertently introduced
into the human food supply (USDHHS, 2001; USEPA, 1998~.
Insofar as research related to the creation of transgenic crops has greatly
outpaced research related to pleiotropic and other unintended consequences, there
is strong public and scientific interest in creating a government-sponsored pro-
gram to explore questions about food allergens and toxicants that are unlikely to
be pursued by the private sector. An aggressive federally funded program would
speed necessary basic research, for example, developing an animal model of food
allergenicity in humans. Once these questions are resolved, it may be possible to
identify the mechanisms by which some proteins cause allergies or toxic effects
and to develop innovative mechanisms to reduce the hazard associated with these
proteins. The mechanisms might include developing biotechnologic approaches
to inactivate allergenic or toxic substances in foods.
Mood allergens may include peanut, shellfish, milk, and eggs.
4A food toxicant is a naturally occurring chemical (a chemical produced by a plant or animal) that
is harmful. Glycoalkaloids in potatoes and furanocoumarins in celery are examples (NRC, 2000b).
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Improve Understanding and Management of Plant and Animal Diseases
45
Advances in science offer new opportunities to manage plant and animal
health in an increasingly integrated global economy. They include new applica-
tions of epidemiology, risk assessment, and risk-management tools to understand
risks posed by wildlife or by increased international trade in plants and animals.
Enhancing disease resistance of plants and animals through genetic techniques
could yield major benefits by reducing processing and production costs and
lessening the use of antibiotics in animal production. Basic research on applying
biotechnology will be a requisite for such applied research. REE should also
support research on other alternatives to antibiotics for promoting growth and
preventing livestock disease, such as competitive exclusion and vaccination, to
address questions about the human health implications of antibiotic use in live-
stock and producers' desires for improved management options.
NUTRITION AND HUMAN HEALTH
Despite food and nutrition assistance programs, hunger and food insecurity
persist in the United States. Food-insecurity prevalence was 10.8% across house-
holds in the United States during the period 1998-2000, with prevalence ranging
from 7.8% to 15.9% of households among the states (Sullivan and Choi, 2002~.
In addition, prevalence of overweight and obesity5 among US adults has increased
over the last 3 decades and was estimated at 61 % in 1999 (USDHHS, 1980, 1988,
1999), and the percentage of overweight children and adolescents has also
increased (USDHHS, 1970, 1974~. Many chronic diseases are weight-related,
including diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, gallbladder dis-
ease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and asthma. Weight-related behaviors, such as
poor diet and lack of physical activity, are linked to these continuing epidemics
(Mokdad et al., 2001~. To date, the primary US policy response to long-term
diet-related conditions, such as obesity and chronic disease, has focused on con-
sumer information (for example, through labeling) and education (for example,
through the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program), with much less
attention given to the community and societal factors that facilitate or inhibit the
adoption and maintenance of healthful diets and lifestyles.
There is urgent need for continued REE research to guide and evaluate food
and nutrition policies and interventions at multiple levels and settings, including
individual, family, school, worksite, retail, marketing, and production. Some of
these research priorities are identified in the US Action Plan on Food Security
(USDA, l999b). Many aspects of the links between diet, health, and disease are
only now becoming understood. Exciting new possibilities for improving health,
Obesity is defined as a body-mass index score of 30 or more. Overweight is defined as a body-
mass index score of 25 or more.
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for controlling some diseases, and for preventing or postponing the onset of some
chronic diseases through diet and for tailoring diets to individual nutritional risks
are emerging. Strengthening and expanding such priorities will be one of the
most important ways for agricultural research to provide benefits to the general
public. Although the development of new food products will be driven by private-
sector funding, USDA should expand research to provide a scientific basis for
efforts to shift dietary patterns and physical activity in a more healthful direction.
As science evolves and public-health challenges shift, a flexible framework
for setting research priorities must be constructed. REE should develop a research
strategy that focuses resources on the most prevalent and costly diseases for which
research has the greatest potential for improving the health of the American
people. The REE effort should be done in collaboration with other public-health
agencies, including NIH (see Chapter 5 for additional discussion of collaboration).
Advance Research on Bioactive Food Components
REE has a tremendous opportunity to evaluate the health effects of biologi-
cally active food components that promote health and prevent disease. Bioactive
components occur naturally in many foods, especially fruits and vegetables, and
include an array of chemical compounds with varied structures, such as caro-
tenoids, flavonoids, plant sterols, omega-3 fatty acids, allyl and diallyl sulfides,
indoles, and phenolic acids. There is a need for a scientific understanding of the
chemistry, metabolism, and health effects of these food components. There is
also a need to assess the concentrations of these components in foods and to
incorporate the information into food-composition databases so that dietary
intakes may be estimated and tracked. The Agricultural Research Service should
continue its work compiling databases on carotenoids, flavonoids, and other
bioactive compounds.
Elucidate Genetic Mechanisms That Affect Human Health and Nutrition
Nutrition-related research on human genetics will provide the foundation for
further understanding of the metabolic fate of nutrients and the biochemical func-
tions of food components, including macronutrients, vitamins, minerals, bioactive
components, and pharmacologic agents. It also will elucidate how and why
people vary in their requirements for and uses of various food components. Such
knowledge has important applications to disease prevention and to minimizing
exposure to physiologically harmful ingredients in plant and animal products.
The genetic basis of such variation is not well understood. Researchers have
identified relatively few of the specific genes that affect the human body's use of
various food components. Also unknown are many aspects of how the genes
interact with one another or with the environment to produce specific nutritional
or disease outcomes. Near-term research priorities include the identification of
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47
biomarkers that correlate with gene activity and functional genomics and
proteomics research to understand correlations between genotype and phenotype.
Such work eventually should make it possible to identify a constellation of
phenotypes that signal high disease risk.
Improved understanding of how genes affect individual nutritional status and
disease risk could eventually have an important role in shaping public-health
policy. For example, a better understanding of how genes affect the body's
storage and use of food calories would greatly enhance efforts to develop effec-
tive food and nutrition policies for reversing our national epidemic of obesity.
In light of the likely rapid entry of transgenic foods into the marketplace in
the coming years and the potential that some of the intended and unintended
compositional changes may disproportionately affect genetically susceptible seg-
ments of the population (NRC, 2000b), there is some urgency to accelerating the
research into the interactions between genes and bioactive compounds in food
and dietary supplements. Indeed, there may be merit in coordinating this research
in some manner that gives priority to studying the genetic interactions with ingre-
dients that are consumed by the most people or that hold the greatest potential for
producing undesirable consequences.
Improve the Nutrient Content of Foods
Opportunities are expanding to enhance human health through plant and
animal products that have improved or enhanced nutrient content. Dietary shifts
among consumers toward healthier eating patterns are generating demands for
foods of superior hearth quality (Krause et al., 1988~. Continuation of that trend
is expected to reinforce the changes of the last decade that made nutraceuticals
and functional foods (foods containing bioactive components) a substantial part
of the food industry (Childs, 2001; Van Elswyk et al., 1998~.
With those shifts in consumer demand, scientific discoveries have greatly
expanded understanding of where and how nutrient enhancement could yield
improvements in human health. Through advances in biotechnology, scientists
now envision using plants as "nutrient factories" that produce nutritionally forti-
fied foods (Burn and Kishore, 2000; Kleese, 2000;) and using major crops as
tools for improving human health (Della Penna, 1999~. Similar advances in
animal biotechnology and scientific understanding of the controls over animals'
physical traits will enable researchers to modify meat composition.
Modification of fats in plant and animal products is a particularly promising
research subject because some fat-consumption patterns are thought to affect the
risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes in adult humans and to
improve health and nervous system development in newborns. Food technology
is a direct approach for modifying the fatty acid properties of foods. Processed
foods are the primary source of bans fatty acids, and processors are already imple-
menting new technology to eliminate these. In addition, today's understanding of
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the genetic controls over fat structure in plants should make it possible to custom-
ize plant lipid biosynthesis to reduce saturates, decrease oxidation potential,
eliminate bans fatty acids, and increase essential long-chain polyunsaturated fatty
acids and antioxidants (Brown at al., 1999~.
Improve Understanding of Food-Consumption
Behavior and its Links to Health
National food-consumption surveys and nutritional epidemiology studies
have been key components of the current understanding of the relationships
between diet, health, and disease. REE has an important continuing role to play
in the collection and evaluation of food-consumption data. The USDA Agri-
cultural Research Service and the Department of Health and Human Services
National Center for Health Statistics have worked collaboratively to implement
the congressionally mandated merger of the National Health and Nutrition
Examination Surveys (NHANES) and the Continuing Survey of the Food Intakes
of Individuals into a single comprehensive, national food-consumption and health
survey (called NHANES). USDA's improved method of obtaining data on food
consumption is a critical component of the new merged survey. More-detailed
food-consumption data, including data on brand-name processed foods and res-
taurant foods, will allow better interpretation of the results from NHANES and
from other nutrition research studies (such as clinical trials and nutrition-inter-
vention studies).
Subar et al. (in press) and Kipnis et al. (in press) reported that current dietary-
assessment methods 24-hour dietary recalls and food-frequency questionnaires-
underestimated both protein and energy intake. There is a great need for REE to
continue to improve methods of assessing food consumption so that the results
will be accurate and provide insight into diet-related health issues, such as obe-
sity, diabetes, some forms of cancer, and other chronic diseases.
Growing public use of dietary supplements (Eisenberg et al., 1998) has cre-
ated new needs to incorporate related information into REE's food-composition
database and food-consumption survey. This information will allow estimations
of the extent, level, and types of dietary supplements consumed among various
demographic groups and the beliefs and motivations that underlie these behaviors.
Data on dietary-supplement consumption may reveal associations between
dietary-supplement intake and health measures and safety concerns. There is
also a major gap in knowledge of the safety of various ingredients in dietary
supplements. The private sector has little incentive to invest in this subject and
no regulatory requirement to do so, and it might therefore be appropriate for
publicly funded research. This information is also vital for research and public-
policy decisions on nutrition-related issues.
Improvements in human nutrition and health will depend on the actions of
individuals, households, and food manufacturers. Although private research is
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6
SUMMARY
This chapter has identified new research directions related to five major
phenomena: globalization; the emergence of pathogens; links between diet, health
promotion, and disease prevention; the relationship between agriculture and the
environment; and changes in rural communities. A multidisciplinary, strategic
approach, consideration of relevant spatial and temporal scales, and coordination
with other agencies will be essential for addressing many of those research topics.
A unique role for the public sector, and specifically for REE, in undertaking the
research is justified, given the expanded research needs of USDA programs and
policies and the limited capability for pnvate-sector research to address it.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
research frontiers
