All MSU USAID programs have been cut as the federal government seeks to reshape higher education and cut what it sees as wasteful spending. At MSU, nine direct and five flow-through USAID projects were terminated, amounting to more than $20 million in funding lost.

USAID is a government agency that provides international humanitarian assistance. The agency provides an array of programs and aid, some of which is done through grants given to universities for projects that provide help to countries in need. (State News – April 17, 2025).

Feed the Global Resource Lead for the Future Biotech Potato Partnership Communications Manager Janet Fierro and professor and director of MSU Potato Breeding and Genetics David Douches join me to discuss the impact of the funding cuts. Douches’ Feed the Future Global Biotech Potato Partnership was one of the cancelled USAID programs.

Conversation Highlights:

(1:08) - Describe your background and role at MSU.

(2:53) - What is the mission of USAID? Has President Trump painted a misguided view of USAID?

(5:23) - What projects will end due to the termination of funding? What will the impact be as these projects end?

(7:45) - This work is consistent with MSU’s land grant and world grant mission. Generational progress will stop. The long-term institutional vision of higher education differs from the short-term vision of corporations. Higher education is the place for this work. Decades of taxpayer money will be wasted. Investment becomes waste.

(11:39) - This work is not about building up foreign competition. America first is not America only. Everything is global. “You can’t build a peaceful world on empty stomachs and human misery.”

(13:53) - What’s next? Is there any hope of having the funding restored? What would you like listeners of this conversation to know and take away? And how can they help?

(16:13) – More on advances in potato research using biotechnology.

(21:27) – Michigan is a national leader in bean production and the number one state in the country for producing potatoes used to make potato chips. MSU research performed passionately around the world helps make American agriculture better too. And MSU has an outstanding reputation around the world.

Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.