On Point with President Obama

It was on Friday evening, one week before the actual event, when IR-4’s North Central Region (NCR) Administrative Adviser, Doug Buhler “got the call” that Michigan State University (MSU) would be hosting President Obama for a special event. The event, he learned a few days later, was the signing of the Farm Bill.

The Farm Bill is of particular importance to specialty crop growers and IR-4. The law contains language that reflects IR-4’s current mission to support specialty crops and minor uses. The Farm Bill also authorizes IR-4 work in the international arena. This international work will help U.S. growers export their goods by removing trade barriers caused by residues of pesticides in specialty crops and minor agricultural uses.

MSU faculty members have had a good deal of input throughout the Farm Bill process. Senator Debbie Stabenow, is a graduate of the university and is currently Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. This made good reason for MSU to host the signing of such a significant piece of legislation.

The day after “the call”, an advance team of White House staffers arrived to discuss the visit with a planning team from MSU. Doug, who is the director of MSU’s AgBio Research, became the research program point person for the President’s visit. Doug showed the advance team the facilities and took them outside in the snow and explained how some of the farm equipment is used. They selected the equipment that would be on display in the staging area for the signing, and plans were well underway.

Then the Secret Service arrived and most of the plans were scrapped. "We learned quickly that you don't negotiate with the Secret Service," said Doug. "They're very professional and very clear on how things will proceed while the President is on campus. We all knew our roles.”

On Friday, February 7, 2014, the President, accompanied by Senator Stabenow, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak and MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, toured MSU’s Biotechnology Institute (MBI). MBI was chosen because of its state of the art facilities where research to address real world problems is conducted. MBI is also the home of IR-4’s North Central Region laboratory and office.

A short time later, President Obama signed the 2014 Farm Bill in front of 500 invited guests. IR-4 was represented by the NCR’s analytical laboratory student helper, Chris LaMarche, who interned with Senator Stabenow in the summer of 2013 and was personally invited to the signing.

Though his time with the President was brief, Doug says he will never forget the moment he was eye to eye with President Obama and shook his hand and says he feels “honored to have been the point person for this momentous

event.”

New Assignment

— by IR-4 Executive Director. Jerry Baron
IR-4 has had an acute problem of overcapacity of facilities and staff to run residue field trials in EPA Data Region 2 for the last several years. We have too many high quality field research directors in the region and not enough work and associated funds to maintain all the sites at full capacity.

To solve this problem, IR-4 HQ, IR-4 Southern Region and North Carolina State University administration are partnering on a unique plan of “sharing” NC Field Research Director, Roger Batts, among the IR-4 units. Since December 2013, Roger has been working about 50% of his time for IR-4 Headquarters. He will be trained to become an off-site Study Director. Roger will also continue to lead the North Carolina’s IR-4 Field Research Center as Director with a much reduced field trial workload (approx. 12 field trials for 2014). Roger will continue to be an employee of NC State University, managing field trials and studies out of his existing IR-4 office on the Raleigh campus.

We hope that the reduced field trials workload in NC will allow other Region 2 Field Research Centers to obtain enough resources to sustain operations. Furthermore, Roger’s new responsibilities will partially backfill the anticipated gap in study directors capacity associated with the recent resignation announcement by Johannes Corley.