Dean Bernardo on IMPACT Center elimination

Washington Ag Today May 6, 2009 Washington State University proposes to save about 1.7 million dollars over the next biennium by eliminating the IMPACT Center. The center, first created in 1985, has been addressing economic, social, political and technical problems that affect the competitiveness of Washington's agricultural products. College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Resource Sciences Dean, Dan Bernardo, says that while the IMPACT Center may go away, research on trade will still be conducted in the School of Economic Sciences. Bernardo: "The IMPACT Center it will be going away in its current form. We still will be conducting some of the research activities around international trade, but that particular center has been, I guess we would say has been in a state of transition since the director left about a year and a half ago. Again, it is a difficult reduction but it is just one of those where we just didn't see that being our highest impact program amongst all the alternatives." The only other CAHNRS program entirely eliminated in the budget to meet state funding reductions is Community and Rural Sociology. The USDA says it will purchase up to 16.3 million dollars of processed apple products and up to 25 million dollars of dry beans for federal nutrition assistance programs. The commodities must meet specified grade requirements and be USDA-certified to ensure quality. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.