Other Ag News:

Wednesday, August 27, 2025 - 1:03pm
Photo credit: USDA

On July 24, 2025, US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins released a memo (SM-1078-015) describing the planned reorganization of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) staff. This reorganization plan was drafted without any consultation with farmers or other stakeholders. While the reorganization plan does not directly include planned layoffs or reductions in force (RIF), USDA has already lost at least 18,000 staff since January 2025. If the reorganization moves forward as planned, it will likely result in the loss of thousands more staff. 

After swift bipartisan pushback to the proposed reorganization, USDA opened an impromptu and unofficial public comment opportunity. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) encourages organizations and individuals to submit their comments, questions, and concerns regarding the reorganization to USDA at reorganization@usda.gov by August 31, 2025. NSAC also notes our concern that the opportunity for public comment has not been formally provided through the Federal Register, as is standard practice for proposals of this scope.

The dedicated USDA staff powers the Department to meet its mission to serve farmers and other stakeholders. Unfortunately, recent history shows that staffing losses directly reduce and delay USDA’s services to stakeholders. When USDA relocated the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) offices in 2019, the agencies lost more than half of their staff. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), these staff losses cut the number of reports and articles generated by ERS staff in half, led to the loss or delay of several vital industry reports, and led to delays and suspensions of several grant programs and payments. It has taken years for the agencies to rebuild their capacity and attempt to replace the lost institutional knowledge needed to serve American agriculture and stakeholders. USDA must avoid replicating the problems of these previous staffing disruptions and further exacerbating the already ongoing staffing crisis at the agency. 

This is the first blog post in a series discussing the loss of USDA staff since January 2025 and the expected impacts of the proposed USDA reorganization across issue areas. This post sets the stage by examining the overall department staffing losses and the losses experienced by each state.  

USDA Staff Work in Your Communities

In recent years, USDA staffing numbers have hovered around 100,000 employees. In September 2024, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reported that USDA had 98,473 employees. Across Republican and Democratic administrations, USDA staffing levels have remained fairly consistent – George W. Bush oversaw the department’s largest workforce, while Obama trimmed it back – until the Trump administration broke sharply with precedent by presiding over recent steep cuts. The first Trump administration saw a historical low in USDA-wide staffing in September 2019 following the relocation of both the ERS and NIFA from Washington, DC to Kansas City, MO. While staffing levels recovered slightly during the Biden administration, they remained below typical levels, and the department has had little time to rebuild the lost institutional knowledge and relationships with stakeholders. 

Figure 1: USDA Staffing Levels

USDA staff work in every US state and territory, as shown in Figure 2 below. Only approximately 4.6% of USDA employees are located in the capital region, with the rest of the department staff spread across the country, working closely with farmers, ranchers, and stakeholders. 

While the reorganization memo claims that major disruptions are justified to bring “the USDA closer to its customers,” the reality is that the overwhelming majority of USDA staff are already living and working outside the capital region. 

Figure 2: USDA Staff by State

!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}})}();
  • An additional 1,063 USDA staff work throughout the US, but their location was suppressed by OPM to protect employee privacy; 794 USDA employees work in US territories, and 336 outside the US. 
USDA Staff Has Already Been Gutted

USDA has already lost at least 18,000 staff since January 2025. More than 15,000 USDA employees left the department through DOGE’s so-called Deferred Resignation Program (DRP). The DRP offered federal employees fully paid administrative leave through September 2025 if employees voluntarily resigned from their positions. Approximately 3,876 USDA employees accepted DOGE’s first round DRP offer, and an additional 11,298 USDA employees resigned in the second round of DRP. Many of these employees have years of experience and irreplaceable expertise

In addition to staff who have resigned through DRP, approximately 2,827 USDA staff members separated from the Department between January and March 2025, according to OPM. These separations include employees who quit, experienced a “reduction in force”, retired (early, voluntary, or for disability), were terminated due to an expired appointment or contract, transferred out, or had some other separation from the department. The separated employees have an average length of service of more than 12.4 years, with 38% of separated employees having more than ten years of service. 

The table below shows the number of employees in each USDA agency, the number who accepted the deferred resignation offer, and the number of other separated employees. 

Table 1: USDA Deferred Resignation and Separations by Agency

  1. The DRP data differentiates between general FSA employees and FSA county employees; FSA county employees are typically not general service employees.

Every agency at USDA has experienced staff resignations and separations. Some have been hit particularly hard, like the Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement (OPPE), losing 53% of its staff to DRP and separations, Rural Development losing 36% of its staff, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) losing 22% of its staff. Reasons for these disparities are not fully understood. Future posts in this series will explore these agency losses and impacts in greater depth. 

Staff Losses Are In Your Communities Despite claiming to prioritize serving farmers and to “bring USDA closer to its customers”, 94% of USDA employees who resigned were located outside of Washington, DC. Every state and territory lost USDA staff during DRP, as the map below shows, and every state except three (Hawaii, Oregon, and California) had more than 10% of its USDA staff resign. 

Figure 3: USDA Staff Losses by State

!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}})}();
  • An additional 73 USDA staff in US territories also accepted the Deferred Resignation Program

Like resignations, 94% of the separations between January and March 2025 were outside of Washington, DC. Every US state and territory had USDA staff separate between January and March 2025, adding to the loss of vital USDA staff. 

Reorganization Will Further Undermine USDA Services

USDA staff are dedicated public servants who support America’s farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. They work in every state and territory and bring their expertise and energy to tackling some of America’s greatest challenges. 

Since January 2025, USDA has already lost at least 18,000 employees. These staff losses mean less capacity to serve farmers and rural communities. The major staff losses experienced during the previous relocation of ERS and NIFA led directly to lost productivity and poor service to stakeholders. Those agencies lost their most experienced staff, and it took years to rebuild their internal capacity. 

The USDA is already experiencing a staffing crisis which means longer wait times for farmers and widespread cutbacks to programs serving American agriculture. The reorganization of USDA will further devastate the department’s workforce and ability to fulfill its mission to serve farmers and rural communities. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has said that she expects between 50-70% of USDA staff to accept the relocation required by reorganization, indicating that thousands of experienced and knowledgeable staff may soon choose to leave the Department, further undermining USDA’s ability to provide vital services to stakeholders.

The post USDA Staffing Crisis: Mass Departures Undermine Local Ag Support appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Wednesday, August 27, 2025 - 12:00pm

WASHINGTON, August 27, 2025 – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins today announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken the next step in the rulemaking process for rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule by opening a public comment period.

Tuesday, August 26, 2025 - 4:45pm

(Washington, D.C., August 26, 2025) – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently identified an instance of a traveler-associated human case of New World screwworm (NWS) in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reaffirmed its robust surveillance and trapping strategy, confirming there have been no detections of NWS in U.S. livestock.

Friday, August 22, 2025 - 9:42am
The hills are alive with the Sound of NSAC

As we do every summer, NSAC coalition members recently gathered for our summer meeting, from August 4-7, in Stowe, Vermont. Located some 25 miles east of Vermont’s largest city, Burlington, and about 40 miles from the US-Canada border, we met at the Trapp Family Lodge (yes, that’s right – owned by the Von Trapp Family, from The Sound of Music!) in Stowe, nestled in the Vermont hills with Mount Mansfield looming in the distance over our meeting place. The location provided a soothing place to hunker down and put our heads together to strategize around our priorities and campaigns. The haze from Canadian fires did not deter some morning walks, nor did it deter our spirit to advance NSAC’s priorities.

A hazy view from the Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, VT

As the air cleared towards the end of the week, we spent some time gathered around a fire, renewing our spirits as we socialized with one another, talked shop, and discussed where to find the best maple creemees. If you have never been to Vermont, you, too, as many of us did, may be wondering what the heck are creemees. Creemees are soft serve ice cream, pumped through a machine to make it more airy, and they are considered the unofficial taste of summer in Vermont. Try one, should you ever find yourself in the Green Mountain State!

A little bit of Austria, a lot of Vermont Vermont NSAC Members

Every year, NSAC staff collaborate with member organizations to select the site of our summer meeting. This year, NOFA-Vermont made suggestions and recommendations that helped guide the selection. As advocates for a more sustainable food and agricultural system and NSAC member organization, NOFA Vermont understands the local landscape in the Green Mountain State, and they played an important role in planning our 2025 Summer Meeting. 

During our opening session, we were treated to a warm welcome to Vermont from NOFA-Vermont Executive Director Grace Oedel, who shared a brief history of what agriculture has looked like in the state since before European colonization, when the Abenaki people still controlled the land, and contextualized their present work in the state. She explained how the landscape has changed over Vermont’s history, from the push to clear land for sheep enterprises beginning with colonization, with booms and later consolidation in apples, then dairy, and then the maple sector.  At the same time, she also emphasized the boom in diversified farms in the state beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, and how Vermont is still made up of many small, diversified farms. When the state experienced historic flooding several years in a row, these farms – many of which do not have access to crop insurance – were left with significant losses. In addition to the lack of workable crop insurance options for these farms, FEMA disaster aid also does not reach most Vermont farmers. As a result of the increasing risks of these kinds of disasters and their impact on farmers, NOFA-VT has undertaken a grassroots campaign to establish a state-funded Farm Security Fund to create a safety net for Vermont farmers. Grace also spoke to other successful organizing efforts to improve the state’s food system, lifting up the work of the Vermont-based farmworker organization Migrant Justice in establishing the Milk with Dignity Standards Council to improve labor standards in the dairy industry in the state.

Farm Tours

At every summer meeting, we take the opportunity to visit some local farms to learn about local farming practices, economies, challenges, and labor. Visiting local farms during the summer meeting allows us to gain insight about how federal agricultural policies are working on the ground and if there are any adjustments that should be considered in our recommendations and advocacy.

Butternut Mountain 

Located in Morrisville, Butternut Mountain Farm is one of the largest maple processors and distributors in the United States. Although tapping maple sap to make syrup takes place during the winter months, a changing climate is presenting new challenges to maple syrup production. Summer months at a maple syrup-producing farm are spent managing the forest ecosystem in which maple trees thrive so that maple production can continue to take place during the winter months. This family-run operation produces syrup from the maple trees on its land, and also purchases from maple farmers throughout Vermont, Maine, New York, and Canada. 

Maple Syrup Tasting at Butternut Mountain Farm

Visitors were given a tour of the state-of-the-art facility, where they learned about the different grades of maple syrup and their various maple products (maple syrup, maple candy, and maple sugar). This visit included a delicious syrup and candy tasting, as well as a presentation on the family farm’s history and the history of maple syrup in America, which provided great grounding for the context offered by NOFA Vermont during our opening session. Visitors also learned of Butternut Mountain’s ongoing efforts to convert to renewable energy at each stage of their operation to sustain the future of Vermont maple syrup production for decades to come.

Foote Brook

Foote Brook Farm is located in Johnson, Vermont, in the Lamoille River Valley, and is a member of NOFA Vermont’s network. The family-owned farm is organic certified, grows 145 varieties of organic produce, and has implemented a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program since 2014. Foote Brooke Farm also sells perennial grass, otherwise known as sod, which improves chemical and physical soil properties and can be part of a healthy crop rotation system, sequestering more carbon and increasing organic matter in the soil. 

Touring the grounds of Foote Brook Farm

During the visit, third-generation farmers Tony and Joie Lehouillier greeted visitors, provided an overview of the history of their farm, and shared about the challenges they have faced in recent years, particularly the devastating floods that impacted their operations in July 2023 and 2024. The floods caused massive damage to crops, barns, machinery, and essential supplies, including fertilizer and feed. They lost an estimated 75 percent of their crops and faced nearly half a million dollars in damages. The environmental toll was severe as well; topsoil and nutrients were stripped away, and contaminated sediment was left behind in some growing areas. Despite the setbacks, the Lehouilliers refused to give up. Through a combination of emergency grants, community donations, and sheer determination, they have worked to rebuild their soil, replant fields, and reimagine parts of the farm for long-term resilience. Their story is one of perseverance, adaptation, and an unwavering commitment to local food and community. 

The farm stand at Foote Brook Farm Maple Wind Maple Wind Farm

We had the opportunity to visit the small livestock farm and processing operation of Maple Wind Farm in Richmond. Maple Wind raises pastured chicken, turkey, pork, and grass-fed beef, though natural disasters that have flooded part of the valley have forced the farm to shift its operations more to chicken and away from beef. Maple Wind is one of a small number of farms that operate a USDA-inspected processing facility on-site, processing both their own poultry and other producers’ poultry as well, providing a critical food system resource for local producers and eaters alike. The visit to Maple Wind offered a chance to better understand the challenges small poultry processors face in finding workers, accessing federal grants that would allow them to improve the efficiency of their operations, and upgrading their equipment, issues that align closely with NSAC’s advocacy in support of the Strengthening Local Processing Act.

Jericho Settlers Jericho Settlers Farm

On the western slopes of the Green Mountain Range and about 10 miles east of Burlington, lies Jericho, where we visited Jericho Settlers Farm, an intergenerational family farm growing certified organic vegetables for wholesale and institutional markets, and also running a CSA program.

Jericho Settlers Farm

Our host narrated some of the challenges they faced scaling their operations, sourcing schools and restaurants, and maintaining crop insurance when natural disasters, such as flooding from a nearby river, keep occurring. This was a topic that NSAC members and staff on that tour were more than eager to discuss, especially learning about the various creative ways that Jericho Settlers were able to finance the installation of many high tunnels, which have enabled them to expand their production season year-round. 

So Long, Farewell

Back in Stowe, after spending half a day visiting farms and engaging in some insightful conversations on the farms and earlier in the day during our strategy sessions, we were ready to let loose for a little while. NSAC hosted a Happy Hour with food and drinks at Stowe Cider. With a large lawn and picnic tables where we could connect, we compared notes and met new and old Coalition allies and friends based in Vermont who could stop by to build community with us.

A few of our favorite things at Stowe Cider

After several days of learning, strategizing, and connecting, we closed our meeting as we usually do, mapping out next steps for the coming months until we reconvene in Washington, DC, for our winter meeting.  We closed our meeting in Stowe feeling determined to continue fighting for the food and agricultural system we deserve: one that is kinder to our families and communities; that levels the playing field for farmers of small farms, farmers of color, workers, and communities with little access to quality food; that helps keep farmers on the land and resilient to the impacts of climate change; and that has the infrastructure for rural areas to market and access more locally produced food. To that end, we will continue working with Congress to make sure that ALL farmers have a fair chance at succeeding, and not just the ones with the deepest pockets and the most land.

Auf Wiedersehen, Vermont!

The post Creemees, Community, and Coalition: NSAC’s Summer Meeting in Stowe, Vermont appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Thursday, August 21, 2025 - 3:35pm

(Washington, D.C., August 21, 2025) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins today issued a memorandum announcing a new policy directive prioritizing land use efficiency when evaluating proposals for power generation projects on National Forest System lands.

Thursday, August 21, 2025 - 12:00pm

(Washington, D.C., August 21, 2025) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins today announced the latest slate of presidential appointments for key Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Rural Development (RD) State Director roles.

Tuesday, August 19, 2025 - 10:28am

(Lebanon, TN, August 19, 2025) – Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins alongside Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Senator Bill Hagerty, Representative John Rose, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden, announced USDA will no longer fund taxpayer dollars for solar panels on productive farmland or allow solar panels manufactured by foreign adversaries to be used in USDA projects.

Tuesday, August 19, 2025 - 9:18am

The lunchbox you pack can make a big difference in keeping your child’s meal safe to eat. Whether you’re sending a turkey sandwich or last night’s soup, a well-packed lunchbox helps protect your little ones from foodborne illness.

Pop Quiz! Does your lunchbox pass the test?

Is it insulated?

An insulated lunchbox helps keep perishable items like meat, poultry, and dairy products cold until lunchtime.

Is it large enough to fit two cold sources?

Monday, August 18, 2025 - 6:30pm

(Lebanon, TN, August 18, 2025) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins today announced nearly $89 million in Congressionally directed investments for 13 rural development projects in communities across the State of Tennessee. These projects, coordinated by USDA Rural Development (RD), will promote strong partnerships and invest in critical infrastructure as well as educational opportunities for rural Tennesseans.

Friday, August 15, 2025 - 5:14pm

(Austin, TX, August 15, 2025) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins today at the Texas State Capitol alongside Governor Greg Abbott and stakeholders from across the country announced the largest initiative yet in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) plan to combat the New World Screwworm (NWS).

Pages

Signup for the Ag Newsletter

Get the freshest farm news, events and updates from in and around Cattaraugus County, NY at least once a month! Go signup!

Other ways to stay connected:

Fresh. Local. From the Ground Up.

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cattaraugus Counties ... putting knowledge to work