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K-State Today

June 1, 2015

USDA-NIFA national program leader speaks on agency changes, president's budget proposal

Submitted by Sarah Hancock

Jeanette Thurston, U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, or NIFA, national program leader for the Division of Food Safety, will present "Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Food Safety Programs, Update on Changes at NIFA, and Implementation of the President's Budget Proposal" at 4 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, at the International Grains Program Building's auditorium.

The USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative is charged with funding research, education and extension grants and integrated grants that address key problems of national, regional and multistate importance in sustaining all components of agriculture, including farm efficiency and profitability, ranching, renewable energy, urban and agroforestry, aquaculture, rural communities and entrepreneurship, human nutrition, food safety, biotechnology and conventional breeding. 

Thurston holds a doctorate from the University of Arizona in public health water microbiology. She worked as a research microbiologist for the USDA Agricultural Research Service, where she studied the fate and dissemination of pathogens in agricultural environments. She joined USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture in 2009. Thurston leads competitive and capacity programs focused on food safety and water.