Perspectives on agricultural research organizations: A new tool for agricultural research and land stewardship

To feed the projected global human population of 9.3 billion, it will be necessary to increase agricultural production approximately 70 % in only four decades. New avenues of agricultural research funding are needed to enhance and enable effective decision-making by stewards of working lands. In 2015, the United States Congress passed a bill that enables estates and others to devote their assets toward Agricultural Research Organizations (ARO). The ARO model is based on the proven existing tax organization, the Medical Research Organization, created in the Internal Revenue Service code in 1956. Our objectives were to provide the definition and description of AROs, describe East Foundation implementation of ARO to illustrate, and discuss opportunities for the ARO vehicle to advance agricultural research for public benefit. East Foundation, the nation's first ARO, is a landowner in southern Texas committed to conducting agricultural research and being primarily engaged in the continuous active conduct of agricultural research in conjunction with land grant universities or colleges of agriculture. We recommend other organizations and entities interested in forming an ARO consider our approach directed towards 1) partnerships, 2) professional advisors, 3) people, and 4) products. In a little more than a decade, our approach has led to the production of over 110 peer-reviewed scientific publications relevant to land stewards and agricultural producers. To advance agriculture, it is extremely valuable to get students, future scientists, and seasoned scientists out on private lands within a research context and realities of agribusiness and working lands. The ARO mechanism should be considered by landowners and others interested in championing agricultural research in the US now and for future generations.