USDA ‘Prepared’ for Looming Government Shutdown, Layoffs Possible

Oct 01, 2025

By Ryan Hanrahan

Meatingplace’s Frank Fuhrig reported that “the USDA says it is ready in the event of a federal government shutdown Wednesday in the absence of budget legislation, while opposition Democrats in Congress are warning of potential further cuts to the federal workforce, which the White House has threatened. A shutdown will occur when the 2025 fiscal year ends Tuesday night, unless a continuing resolution is passed.”

“During a 2018 federal shutdown, Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) meat inspection and laboratory testing personnel continued working,” Fuhrig reported. “‘USDA is prepared for all contingencies regarding department operations, including critical services and supports,’ a spokesperson said in a statement to Meatingplace, but did not provide requested details about FSIS operations or potential USDA layoffs.”

Brownfield Ag News’ Carah Hart reported that “Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins says the USDA is fully prepared in case the U.S. government shuts down this week. ‘I believe, sincerely, the incredible and important programs especially that help our farmers, those will continue and they shouldn’t be affected by the shutdown, but we’re still working on the details.’ Rollins made those comments to media at last week’s Ag Outlook Forum.”

USDA Shutdown Contingency Plan Includes Layoffs

Politico’s Grace Yarrow reported that “USDA officials are preparing for more layoffs if the government shuts down this week, according to two people with direct knowledge of the plans.”

“The department has submitted its tentative shutdown contingency plan which includes a reduction-in-force provision to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget for approval, according to the individuals, who were granted anonymity to discuss the private talks,” Yarrow reported. “They could not provide further details on which employees would be cut, but the two people said the rest of the proposal largely mirrors USDA’s typical shutdown contingency plan that was last publicly updated during the Biden administration.”

Source : illinois.edu

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”