For a design that extends shelf-lives of staple foods and improves crop seeding, Benedetto Marelli is the winner of the inaugural BioInnovation Institute & Science Prize for Innovation.

Haley Oliver conducts research on food contamination, and applied for the AAAS Leshner Leadership Institute Public Engagement Fellowship in part because she wants to the public to be able to make better decisions to protect themselves from foodborne illness, and be able to differentiate between food safety and food quality – a confusion she says results in a significant waste problem.

The president's FY2017 budget will invest $700 million in USDA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI).