The Knowledge Intensification of Agriculture

Federal funding for agricultural sciences was initiated with the passage of the Morrill Act in 1862. Since then, the need for science-based information to support our knowledge-intensive agricultural and food systems has grown substantially, and continues to grow, in all farm and food systems. Transformative developments in the disciplines of plant microbiology and plant pathology have led to an increased pace in research and application of knowledge in soil ecosystems and phytobiomes, precision agriculture, and more sophisticated tools for the manipulation of plant genetics. Appropriate federal support remains critical to our robust farming and food systems.Copyright (c) 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.