Mastodawn

cutting research programs disrupts long‑term innovation pipelines that take decades to deliver results.

“Knowledge is persistent,” he said. “It gets used over and over again and accumulates over time. When you disrupt that supply chain — even losing a year — it can cost two to three hundred million dollars annually.”

Gray pointed to wheat breeding alone, estimating we've seen $7.8 billion in benefits over a decade in Western Canada, largely driven by publicly funded research.

"That’s kind of what’s at stake when we’re talking about cutting these programs going forward,” he said. “Farmers would be in very bad shape if productivity hadn’t increased over time.”