President Donald Trump’s dramatic cuts have hit many parts of the federal government, but one worth paying particular attention to is reductions to agencies and programs that are working to protect plant and animal health, the New York Times reported Wednesday. Firings at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration could mean possible threats to food safety and animal health.
Emily Anthes and Apoorva Mandavilli write: “The damage could be long-lasting. Workers whose jobs were spared said that the upheaval had left them eyeing the exits, and graduate students said they were reconsidering careers in the federal government. The shrinking work force could also have far-reaching consequences for trade and food security and leave the nation unequipped to tackle future threats to plant and animal health, experts said.”
John Ternest was laid off from the USDA, where he was getting ready to study bee health and pollination. “These really were indiscriminate firings,” he told the Times. “We don’t know what we’ve lost until it’s potentially too late.”
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Among fired USDA workers were people combating bird flu, but then their terminations were later rescinded. The agency was in the middle of hiring more people to work on the response, but the federal hiring freeze nixed the process.
Thousands of employees were laid off from the USDA, including about 400 people employed at its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Some worked to combat invasive insects that killed plants, while others made sure that agriculture entering the country did not have pests or pathogens. There are reportedly already delays in U.S. ports due to the firings.
“Over the longer term,” Anthes and Mandavilli write, “if agricultural pests and pathogens found their way into the country, they could infest the nation’s homegrown crops, threatening food security and reducing demand for American agricultural products abroad.”
“If the United States gets a reputation for having dirty products, does that mean other countries will also, you know, step in and say, ‘Hey, we don’t want to buy your goods’?” an official said.
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Another part of the department hit hard was the veterinary services program, which checks imported livestock for disease and is working to combat bird flu, while firings at the CDC could put pets at risk. The agency regulates the entry of animals to the United States.
“For example, the agency does not permit dogs that have recently been in countries with a high prevalence of rabies to enter the United States unless they have been vaccinated against the disease,” Anthes and Mandavilli write.
About half of the CDC employees at the port health stations were fired. Some stations are now unattended.
Firings at the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine could also stymie the approval of new medicine for animals and allow dangerous products to be put on the market.
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About 800 people were fired from the USDA Agricultural Research Service, which stopped a variety of research projects, such as a project looking at potato disease. And fired employees at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Nebraska had been researching food safety and salmonella.
“We understand and respect the federal government’s desire to cut wasteful spending, but the truth of the matter is, U.S. MARC does not fall in that category,” the Nebraska Cattlemen Association said. The work at the center, “has potential to reduce costs for the beef industry long term and improve food safety for consumers.”
Some, but not all, of the scientists at the agency were reinstated.
“I think that people that want to earnestly do science are going to be viewing and remembering these decisions and how scientists are being treated,” said a scientist who was fired and rehired.
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Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins “fully supports President Trump’s directive to optimize government operations, eliminate inefficiencies and strengthen USDA’s ability to better serve American farmers, ranchers and the agriculture community,” a USDA spokesman said.
