USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture announced it will award $24 million in food safety research grants to 35 projects at 26 different research institutions. Projects focus on the role of pigs in foodborne of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, innovative mitigation strategies for antimicrobial resistance, improving the safety of fresh and fresh-cut produce and the physical and molecular mechanisms of food contamination.

“If we’re not funding research, then the academic institutions can’t train people to replace the brain drain that we’re facing in public health and in science," says Barabara Kowalcyk, CEO of the Center for Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention.