"It was a great relief and celebration in my lab," Rufus Isaacs, an entomologist who leads a team of scientists to enhance bee pollination of crops, told Associated Press reporter Jeff Karoub. "It's been a long wait for this."

The pledge of hundreds of millions of dollars for agricultural research is a relative drop in the bucket compared with the nearly $100-billion a year bill, but giving money to universities across the country, including for advanced agricultural research, is another boom for the industry.

It is still unclear how much universities will receive, according to the article, because the bill’s budget represents money authorized to be spent but not yet appropriated.

“The past five years represents one of the strongest periods in our nation’s farm economy,” reads a report released today by Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors and included in a New York Times article by Michael D. Shear.

“Not only does American agriculture put food on the table of American families at affordable prices and provide raw material for a range of vital purposes, it also supports one out of every 12 jobs in the economy. The hard work done on the farm is felt throughout our economy, particularly when agriculture is thriving.”

The president’s visit to MSU is a both a nod to state Sen. Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the Senate's Agriculture Committee, and to a state where agriculture is the second-largest industry.

Isaacs told the AP that the new bill’s funding provides "the fuel that keeps his project rolling on” – something that makes getting up for work each morning all the more rewarding.  FG

—Summarized by FG staff from cited sources