The Agriculture Food and Research Initiative Coalition, which includes AAU, sent a letter to House and Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Leaders requesting they provide at least $600 million for AFRI in FY22 appropriations. The letter notes that the funding is “much needed to invest in crucial areas aimed at addressing our nation’s most pressing food, agriculture, and public health challenges … including COVID-19 recovery, climate change adaptation and resiliency, racial equity in the food system for farmers and farmworkers, bioenergy, nutrition, agricultural technology, rural economic prosperity, and food safety.”