Deadline: August 26, 2025

On August 1, 2025, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced the opening of a 30-day public comment period on USDA’s proposed reorganization plan.  The plan, outlined in a July 24 memorandum, seeks to consolidate and optimize functions within the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to improve effectiveness, enhance services, reduce bureaucracy and achieve cost savings.

While these goals are well-intended, stakeholder input is critical to ensure that essential functions and programs remain. One notable change includes relocating the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) National Program Staff from Washington, D.C. to five major cities across the U.S. This “phased” move will also close of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Beltsville, MD, the nation’s largest agricultural research facility and home to the Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory (EMFSL). EMFSL, part of the Food Safety and Nutrition program (National Program 108) of ARS, conducts vital food safety research along with 16 other BARC laboratories at BARC. These proposed relocations will disrupt ongoing critical food safety and agronomic research as well as potentially result in loss of scientific expertise.  These are vital programs and technical experts that support the specialty crop industry that are at risk under this re-organization plan.

We encourage all members of the agricultural and food safety community to review the plan and share feedback with USDA. Comments can be sent to [email protected]. no later than August 26, 2025.