FACILITIES REVIEW TASK FORCE
                                            Release No. 0094.97
                                                               
                                    Tom Amontree (202) 720-4623
                                    Johna Pierce (202) 720-4623

GLICKMAN APPOINTS MEMBERS TO FACILITIES REVIEW TASK FORCE

     WASHINGTON, March 26, 1997--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today
announced appointments to a panel charged with reviewing the nation's 
federally financed agricultural research facilities.  The newly-created 15-member Facilities Review Task Force will recommend to Glickman and Congress
priorities for agricultural research facilities in the next decade.

     "Limited federal dollars and shifts in national research priorities
make this the optimum time for reevaluating our research capacity and
streamlining our research network," Glickman said.  "We will continue to
pursue the kind of sustainable, world-class agricultural research this
nation expects and relies upon.  However, it is clear that to accomplish
that goal in a climate of downsizing and changing research priorities, we
need a comprehensive review and assessment of how we use research
facilities."

     Created in the 1996 Farm Bill, the task force will have two years to
produce a 10-year strategic plan which will recommend priorities for
development, modernization, construction, consolidation, and closure of
existing and proposed agricultural research facilities that will be
constructed using federal financing. 

     USDA operates 104 Agricultural Research Service locations and the 
research capacity of the Forest Service includes seven Forest Experiment
Stations, a Forest Products Laboratory, the International Institute of
Tropical Forestry, and research work units at 67 project locations.  Federal
funds have supported research facility construction at some of the 76 land
grant universities.  

     Glickman selected task force members from nominations submitted by the
National Agricultural Research Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory
Board.  The advisory board was created by the Farm Bill to advise the
Agriculture Secretary and land grant universities on the policies and
priorities of USDA's Research, Education, and Economics agencies.

     Members are:

Jose Amador, center director, Agriculture Research and Extension Service,
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas;

Bruce Andrews, director, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Portland, Ore.;

Alan Bergman, president, North Dakota Farmers Union, Jamestown, N.D.; 

Al Clausi, retired, senior vice president and chief research officer,
General Foods, Greenwich, Conn.; 

John Gordon, professor and dean emeritus, Forestry and Environmental
Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; 

Bob Guernsey, farmer and former president, Council for Agricultural
Research, Extension, and Teaching, Lebanon, Ind.; 

Ted Hullar, professor for environmental toxicology, University of California
at Davis, Calif.; 

Andrew Jordan, director, National Cotton Council, Memphis, Tenn.;  

Carol Ann Keiser, owner/manager, Loveless Cattle Co., Carlinville, Ill.;

Max Lennon, president, Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, N.C.; 

Joseph McDonald, president, Salish Kootenai College, Pablo, Mont.; 

Kathleen Merrigan, senior analyst, Henry A. Wallace Institute for
Alternative Agriculture, Greenbelt, Md.; 

Richard Ross, dean, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University,
Ames, Iowa; 

Tom Urban, former CEO, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Des Moines, Iowa, and
faculty, Harvard University Business School, Cambridge, Mass.; and

Jim Wilder, executive vice president, North Carolina Soybean Producers
Association, Raleigh, N.C.  

     Urban will serve as chair.  Andrews will serve as vice chair. 

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