America stands at a crossroads. Which direction we turn will have a dramatic impact-good or bad-on the future of agriculture, the food system, natural resource management, our nation’s economic development, and the health and safety of our citizens.

For far too long a severe lack of funding to modernize agricultural research facilities has been tying our hands in the development of new and better solutions and in preparing the future scientists we need to create those solutions.

Our public investment in agricultural research comes from federal, state and industry dollars. This includes the modern infrastructure required to conduct that research, a funding load states have single-handedly been carrying since the 1990s. As a result, United States investment is below 1980s levels while other countries are investing heavily, outspending us by billions of dollars in agriculture research, according to a report by Gordian released in March.

As these countries outpace us in research investment, they can anticipate increased agricultural productivity and food quality while the U.S. can expect a drop in both agriculture exports and innovation. This trend could ultimately have dire economic and security implications for our nation.