By Vinnie Trometter
Record-high input costs, low commodity and specialty crop prices, and lack of access to markets are placing massive economic pressures on farmers. In January of this year, over 300 farm groups sent a letter to Congressional leadership issuing a dire warning that the long-term viability of American agriculture is under threat unless conditions change.
Since then, the situation has only gotten worse. The war in Iran has spiked fertilizer prices during the peak spring planting season, affecting the vast majority of farmers who hadn’t pre-booked their fertilizer. Exacerbating pressures, a record-warm winter in the Western United States is contributing to a drought that covers over 70% of the acres for many major commodities.
With this as the backdrop, the USDA plans to restructure its research, education, and economics agencies so they “can be closer to farmers” and coordinate better. Though OFRF has advocated for better USDA organic research coordination, this restructuring will only move the department further away from the producers it’s meant to serve due to lapses in service and the loss of USDA employees who fill important functions.
The major part of this proposed restructuring is to move more personnel from the USDA’s core research and data agencies—the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Economic Research Service (ERS), and National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)—to Kansas City and St. Louis. Though the most recent restructuring proposal claims there will be no job losses or disruption to farmers’ services, recent history suggests otherwise. After NIFA and ERS were relocated to Kansas City in 2019 during the first Trump administration, about 75% of those slated to move left the USDA entirely, including large numbers of employees with decades of experience who are not easily replaced; it is not easy for career employees with homes, families, and lives to pick up and start again in a new state with little notice. As a result, the number of economic reports out of USDA agencies dropped by half, and funding for land-grant universities was significantly delayed.
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