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USDA relocation efforts threaten agricultural research, advocates say

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition says it’s concerned that USDA workforce relocation efforts could be detrimental to long-term agriculture research.

Policy Specialist Nick Rossi tells Brownfield, “There’s no real plan that’s been made publicly available.”

“There was a public comment period that USDA put forward where they received pretty critical feedback on relocation and the closing of the Beltsville Research Center, and those seem to have been ignored,” he says.

U.S. Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins recently announced plans to relocate some Research, Education, and Economics Mission Area employees currently based in the National Capital Region to other areas, including Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa.

Rossi says reduction efforts in force last year have cut back about 23 percent of the USDA staff already.

“ARS researchers are oftentimes a part of those projects for 20, 30 years plus, a lot of long-term research that comes out of those agencies,” he highlights. “With these disruptions, you can’t just hire people who have that wealth of experience.”

The American Federation of Government Employees says more than half of employees resigned or retired from the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture when positions were moved to Kansas City in 2019.

The Union says the new relocation efforts will repeat and amplify that damage, with more than 76 percent of its affected members saying they won’t move.

Both groups are calling on Congress to intervene and protect ag research and USDA programs.