UPPER SAUCON TOWNSHIP, Lehigh County — Declining state support for the agricultural research and outreach programs operated by Penn State will hurt the residents of Pennsylvania and the country as the need for that work grows.
That was the message of several Penn State trustees, who Friday approved a 2011-12 university budget that includes a 19 percent decrease in state funding. That cut extends to cooperative extension and agricultural research programs.
“The true loser is the Pennsylvania consumer because they have been the beneficiary in ag research and extension,” said trustee Keith Eckel.
He noted that in Pennsylvania, and across the country, residents spend less than 10 percent of their income on food, compared with other industrialized countries whose residents spend 15 to 24 percent of their income on food.
“This cut of 20 percent will negatively impact every one of our citizens,” Eckel said.
Trustee Carl Shaffer, who is president of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, said by 2050 the world’s growing population means there will need to be a 100 percent increase in food production on the same or smaller footprint.
“The only way the world is going to get out of this is new technology to keep increasing productivity,” Shaffer said. “And I really believe we better wake up pretty soon and shift gears on the course we’re going, because it’s not just to help farmers, but to feed the world.”
The university doesn’t turn to tuition increases to cover costs for cooperative extension and agricultural research, and President Graham Spanier emphasized that Friday. He said more than 60 percent of undergraduates take out loans for school, and they can’t be asked to make up for budget gaps in cooperative extension and ag research.
“While it’s all part of one bottom line budget, there are certain lines we don’t want to cross,” Spanier said. “There were elected officials who have recently argued that it’s our decision not to shift money from the education and general budget to, let’s say, agricultural research, that it’s a decision we could make if we wanted. That’s not right. We’ve said, ‘No, we can’t do that.’ ”
In the future, the state appropriation for cooperative extension and agriculture research will be funneled through the state Department of Agriculture, a move that some lawmakers say they hope will result in more stable funding.
Meanwhile, in 2011-12, the budget cuts will mean a $4.8 million cut in state funding for agricultural research and a $5.8 million cut in money for cooperative extension.
Earlier this year, the College of Agricultural Sciences offered early retirement to 120 employees. Spanier said two-thirds accepted the offer, which will mean about $4 million in savings in future years.
Spanier said Dean Bruce McPheron is developing a plan to manage the rest of the shortfall.
“The net result,” Spanier said, “unfortunately, will be the reduction of scores of positions that can no longer be supported with the elimination of almost one-fifth of the commonwealth’s funding for these important activities.”
Anne Danahy can be reached at 231-4648.
