Richard Wilkins, a farmer from Delaware and president of the American Soybean Association, has been elected to the Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR) Foundation board of directors.

ASA is a founding member of SoAR and was previously represented on the board by former ASA President Steve Wellman. The foundation leads a non-partisan coalition of scientific, consumer and producer groups that work to educate stakeholders about the importance of funding agricultural research, especially the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), the flagship competitively awarded grant program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“Our board recognizes the unique contributions ASA has made to us in our founding years, and it wants to continue to have the benefits of having a real farmer on the board,” the Foundation said.

ASA has a proud tradition of farmer leadership on agricultural research coalitions. Through SoAR, along with National Coalition for Food and Agriculture Research (C-FAR ), ASA is recognized as the leader among farm groups in actively advocating for agricultural research.

To learn more about SoAR, visit http://supportagresearch.org/soar-for-science/.