Meeting February 14-15, 1996 - National Genetic Resources Advisory Council (NGRAC)

Executive Summary
Sixth Meeting February 14-15, 1996

1. The sixth meeting of the National Genetic Resources Advisory Council (NGRAC) was held February 14-15, 1996, in Washington, D.C. In attendance were seven of the nine appointed members and six ex-officio members or their designates. Dr. Catherine Woteki, Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics (REE), represented the Secretary's office. The NGRAC is chaired by John Barton and Richard Lower serves as Vice Chair. The focus of the meeting was to be the memorandum with recommendations to Deputy Secretary Rominger and work on the strategic plan.

2. Dr. Woteki welcomed the Council and emphasized that the Council's effort to develop a strategic plan for the National Genetic Resources Program (NGRP) is a timely and appropriate activity.

3. Henry Shands, Director of the NGRP, presented the budget estimates for FY 1996 and noted that USDA was one of two Departments funded early and did not experience the furloughs that beset a number of Departments late in 1995. In the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), projects including those on genetic resources assumed approximately a one percent reduction to absorb a number of budget actions. No new funds were allocated to genetic resources despite the Administration request for $1 million for new agricultural biodiversity and plant genome projects.

4. Reference is made to the Summary of the September 1995 NGRAC Meeting regarding the meeting with Deputy Secretary Rominger. The Council determined that it wanted to be more precise in its recommendations to Mr. Rominger and chose to finalize the memorandum during the current meeting of the Council.

5. In an attempt to become acquainted with heritage seed and grassland conservation programs, the Council requested that Mr. Kent Whealy, Director of Seed Savers Exchange, Decorah, Iowa, present the program he has developed. Seed Savers Exchange has over 8,000 members in 30 countries and preserves approximately 15,000 heritage varieties of vegetables and fruits. He described his activities to help collect and preserve heritage varieties in Eastern Europe and in the Former Soviet Union through collaboration with the genebank in Gatersleben, Germany and the Vavilov Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia.

6. Central Plains grassland research activities were discussed by Dr. Ken Vogel, ARS forage grass breeder, located at Lincoln, Nebraska. He focused on his prairie grass breeding work with the tall grass prairie grasses: switchgrass, big bluestem, and Indian grass.

7. Dr. Bruno Quebedeaux, University of Maryland, presented an analysis of plant genome statistical data through 1994 from the Current Research Information System (CRIS). Dr. Ed Kaleikau, Acting Division Director, Plants Division of the National Research Initiative (NRI), CSREES, presented the summary data from the Plant Genome NRI Grants.

8. During the discussion of the strategic plan, valuable suggestions were made by many of the ex-officio members of the Council who have been through the process in their agencies. The Council agreed in the end that the new version must fit within the parameters of the REE strategic plan as discussed by Dr. Woteki and Gary McCone (NAL) who had been involved with its development.

Prepared by Henry L. Shands
February 20, 1996
Edited by NGRAC

Draft Summary of
Sixth Meeting February 14-15, 1996

1. The sixth meeting of the National Genetic Resources Advisory Council (NGRAC) was held February 14-15, 1996, in Washington, D.C. In attendance were seven of the nine appointed members and six ex-officio members or their designates. Dr. Catherine Woteki, Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics (REE), represented Dr. Stauber. Dr. Woteki served at the Office of Science and Technology Policy under Dr. M.R.C. Greenwood, Associate Director for Science. The NGRAC is chaired by John Barton and Richard Lower serves as Vice Chair. The focus of the meeting was to be the memorandum with recommendations to Deputy Secretary Rominger and work on the strategic plan.

2. After the opening of the meeting and introductions, Dr. Woteki welcomed the Council and emphasized that the Council's effort to develop a strategic plan for the National Genetic Resources Program (NGRP) is a timely and appropriate activity. She indicated that the REE Strategic Plan draft will be ready on schedule at the end of March. She discussed the forums sponsored by the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) helping to develop science policy and indicated that the publication resulting from the Forum on Health, Safety, and Food (November 1994) will be available shortly. She discussed the strong support by the Administration for science and how science policy was being translated into budgetary support.

3. Henry Shands, Director of the NGRP, presented the budget estimates for FY 1996 and noted that USDA was one of two Departments funded early and did not experience the furloughs that beset a number of Departments late in 1995. In the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), projects including those on genetic resources assumed approximately a one percent reduction to absorb a number of budget actions. No new funds were allocated to genetic resources despite the Administration request for $1 million for new agricultural biodiversity and plant genome projects. He indicated that the final numbers for the President's budget request should be available in another week or two and will be provided to the Council when made public. Subsequent discussion concerned the accuracy of the numbers presented by several agencies and how the numbers were calculated. Also in question was how the NRI calculated its figures and the variance between 1995 and 1996 numbers.

4. Reference is made to the Summary of the September 1995 NGRAC Meeting regarding the meeting with Deputy Secretary Rominger (excerpt attached). Following that meeting the Council approved sending a request from the Council which Mr. Rominger later asked be put in the form of a Decision Memorandum. The Council determined that it wanted to be more precise in its recommendations to Mr. Rominger and chose to finalize the memorandum during the current meeting of the Council. Recommendations in the memorandum were to assist in coordination of the program by: appointing a person to assist the Director in preparing a strategic plan and related procedures, appointing a standing interagency committee within USDA of Agency heads or empowered designees to assist the Director, creating a Departmental cross-cut budget line, and to establish of a primary independent category (currently an "Objective") within the ARS mission. The Council focused on the wording of the memorandum at several points during this sixth meeting and finalized the language on the second day. John Barton and Richard Lower briefed Under Secretary Stauber and Dr. Woteki on the content prior to their departure from Washington.

5. During the course of the referenced September 1995 meeting with Mr. Rominger, Paul Johnson, Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), questioned members of the Council present about the inclusion of components of various conservation program activities within the NGRP. In an attempt to become acquainted with two aspects, the Council requested that persons with knowledge about heritage seed and grassland conservation programs be invited to present an overview of activities at this meeting of the NGRAC. Mr. Kent Whealy, Director of Seed Savers Exchange, Decorah, Iowa, presented the program he has developed with over 8,000 members in 30 countries to preserve approximately 15,000 heritage varieties of vegetables and fruits. He described his activities to help collect and preserve heritage varieties in Eastern Europe and in the Former Soviet Union through collaboration with the genebank in Gatersleben, Germany and the Vavilov Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia.

6. Central Plains grassland research activities were discussed by Dr. Ken Vogel, ARS forage grass breeder, located at Lincoln, Nebraska. He focused on his prairie grass breeding work with the tall grass prairie grasses: switchgrass, big bluestem, and Indian grass, selected for their C4 physiology and efficiency to grow in the hot summer. His recent plant collecting effort to gather bulk representative samples from residual native stands resulted in many useful populations. He compared production of those native stand collections with bred varieties and found that the bred varieties outyielded the native stands in wide area testing from Indiana to Nebraska. He noted that some of the best new strains are used by the NRCS on roadsides for erosion control. Some of the more unusual native grasses have been selected by horticulturists for decorative home lawn use.

7. The Council had expressed interest in an update on the plant genome project after its 5 years of grant support. Dr. Bruno Quebedeaux, University of Maryland, presented an analysis of the data through 1994 from the Current Research Information System (CRIS) which represents data put in by agricultural scientists at universities and the federal government. He noted the data would not represent all grants uniquely as to the source of the funds. CRIS system identifiable funding for plant genome mapping, gene identification and DNA sequencing has grown from $31M (FY90) to $87M (FY94). Of the $87M, ARS has $26M, CSREES has $16M, other USDA $3M, other Federal $7M and Non-Federal Sources $35M. The system identified 283 SY in 1994. By comparison, the CRIS system showed animal genome funding had $54M and microorganisms $9M in FY94.

8. Dr. Ed Kaleikau, Acting Division Director, Plants Division of the National Research Initiative (NRI), CSREES, presented the summary data from the Plant Genome NRI Grants. The awards total for 1995 was $9.5M, with the average award $130,462. The success rate was 32 percent. Over the 1991-1995 period, most funds have been awarded to maize $12.2M (22%) followed by tomato (12%), Arabidopsis (8.6%), tobacco (7.4%), and wheat (5.8%).

9. The Council discussed the way the agencies receive funding, priority setting, decision-making processes for applying funds to the programs and processes for redirecting funds when necessary. Henry Shands reviewed the Federal budget process, the many junctures where changes in levels and priorities take place during its process from Agency to Department to OMB and the President's budget message to the Congress, where Congressional markups often change the requests. Shands noted the unusual nature of the FY97 budget process created since the FY96 budget has not been completely finalized. The FY97 budget is being distributed to the USDA agencies during the next week.

10. During the discussion of the strategic plan, valuable suggestions were made by many of the ex-officio members of the Council who have been through the process in their agencies. The Council agreed that the new version must fit within the parameters of the REE strategic plan as discussed by Dr. Woteki and Gary McCone who had been involved with its development.

11. The Council discussed the low probability of a second meeting during the current fiscal year due to lack of funding. The Council's charter expires July 9 and the Council must be rechartered and a new roster of members appointed. Three members have completed two terms, the maximum consecutive terms permitted under law. Those members are John Barton, Marjorie Hoy, and Neal Jorgensen. The USDA expresses its sincere thanks to those retiring members for their valued contributions during their terms and looks to their continued interest and interaction with the Council. Six members are eligible for reappointment by the Secretary. The Council indicated that its highest priority activity for the next meeting would be focused on the development of the strategic plan. The meeting adjourned at 2:45 p.m.

Prepared by Henry L. Shands
February 16, 1996
Edited by NGRAC 

Attachment (Paragraph from the Final Summary of the September 18-19, 1995 NGRAC Meeting)

13. The Council discussed issues that the Chair and Vice Chair would present to Deputy Secretary Rominger. The Council prioritized the new concept issues as follows: 1) importance of genetic resources program to food production, nutrition, conservation, and competitiveness of U.S. industry (noting the integration of genomics and biotechnology and having the genetic resources available); 2) coordination of the genome and genebank programs at both the crop and administration levels, forestry in-situ (ex-situ where needed), and animals including aquaculture; 3) critical research (better preservation mechanisms, genomics, core collections, nationalizing microbial and insect collections, and the need for an IPA to put together a national enhancement program as proposed by ESCOP); and 4) funding coordination for the programs within the USDA, including a temporary person from SAES to develop a coordinating linkage. The meeting with USDA Deputy Secretary Rominger included REE Under Secretary Karl Stauber, Associate Deputy Chief for Research, U.S. Forest Service, Barbara Weber, and Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Paul Johnson, and from the Council, Barton, Lower, and Shands. Mr. Rominger asked that the Council present its recommendations in writing which John Barton agreed to do. John Barton provided a summary of the meeting to the Council.

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