Here's a highlight of the Farm Bill

Nature doesn't discriminate.

When aphids attack soybean fields, they don't bother to check into the farmer's outside income. If and when the emerald ash borer moves in and starts destroying Minnesota's ash trees, the pests won't stop to consider whether the trees have been planted as landscaping or for timber harvesting.

That's why all the talk over the 2007 Farm Bill, much of it pitting large farmers vs. small and traditional agriculture vs. organic producers, misses out on one of the key provisions of the bill -- one that, while relatively small in the scope of the sprawling, $286 billion package, could have long-term benefits for all Minnesotans.

Both the House- and Senate-approved versions of the bill include renewed funding for core agricultural research and competitive research grants at land-grant universities. The grants are intended to address issues such as where the nation's food will come from in the future and how we can best preserve natural resources.

This is research that affects all of us, and it's important that these provisions remain in the final, joint version of the bill. Over the past 30 years, agricultural research funding has lagged far behind federal spending for other kinds of scientific research.

In Minnesota, we have one land-grant university -- the University of Minnesota. While some well-known research at the U is funded by grants from corporations, nonprofits or the state, we rely on federal money to help pay for state-of-the-art research into problems faced by both rural and urban Minnesota.

Typical problems we're working to solve include:

• Threats to honeybees: The bees, which pollinate everything from marigolds to seed corn, are the glue that holds our food system together. But they're under siege by a variety of parasites and other threats. Researchers at the U -- which has the only apiculture research and extension program in the five-state area -- are working to find out what's wrong with the bees and how they can be brought back to health.

• The strength of the barley crop: The federally funded Barley Coordinated Agricultural Project, headquartered at the U, is finding ways to improve agronomic performance, disease resistance and malting quality. While beer drinkers will surely appreciate the impact of better barley, perhaps it's more important to note that small-grain production in Minnesota has an estimated economic impact of $300 million to $400 million annually.

• Invasive plant and animal species: Such species -- think of carp or Eurasian water milfoil -- could devastate Minnesota's water resources if we don't do something to contain them. A new graduate-level minor at the U is aimed at training students how to manage these species. In a state where fishing is a $3 billion industry, newly introduced species will be a key issue for future generations.

• Cancer prevention: Bioactive components of plants, such as the isoflavones found in soy products, hold great promise in this field. For a soybean-rich state like Minnesota, the effects of such a discovery could have a major economic bonus in addition to making us healthier.

These aren't abstract problems, and they're only a few local examples of what the broad term "agricultural research" encompasses. They're obviously important to all Minnesota citizens, not just to academics who will directly benefit from research grants.

Need more evidence that ag research is a good investment for taxpayers? Economic analysis has shown that this kind of science has a high rate of return on the initial investment, usually assumed to be between 40 percent and 60 percent, thanks to the increased productivity that often comes with new discoveries. Plus, the solutions we find to our problems likely will spill over to other states and countries. What Minnesota scientists learn from this research will be shared with scientists from Wisconsin and Iowa and beyond, and vice versa.

That, in turn, may lead to more new innovations that benefit farmers and consumers. The cell phone in your pocket today has its roots in the spin-off innovations of our federal space program investment in science back in the 1960s. The Farm Bill's investment in research on issues key to our future -- food and health, renewable energy, climate change, water and the environment -- has the potential to be an equally significant catalyst for change. It deserves the support of all Minnesotans, regardless of whether they are directly or indirectly connected to farming.

Allen Levine is dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota and is director of the Minnesota Obesity Center.