800 326 9054USDA food safety and scientific research personnel will be moved out of Washington to locations across the country, including to a new food safety center in Iowa.
In a news release, USDA said it plans to move positions in the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture from the National Capital Region to Kansas City and decommission the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland.
“ERS and NIFA positions that were moved to Kansas City in 2019 and have since sprawled across the country will be relocated to Kansas City, as originally intended,” a USDA news release said.
The department plans to create a National Food Safety Center in Urbandale, Iowa, “which will serve as the primary hub for [Food Safety and Inspection Service], administrative, technical and support operations.”
“This is about building a stronger, more resilient food safety system for the country,” Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins said in the release. By establishing the new center “and expanding our scientific capabilities, USDA is ensuring that [FSIS] is positioned where it can best support American agriculture and protect public health.”
The center “will help us better prepare and support our workforce while also creating new opportunities to attract and develop the next generation of food safety professionals,” FSIS Administrator Justin Ransom said.
The center “will become the agency’s largest office in the United States with approximately 200 employees,” according to the news release. About 100 employees will stay in the D.C. area “to support congressional engagement, policy development and interagency coordination.”
FSIS “will also establish a Science Center in Athens, Georgia, building on its existing Eastern Field Services Laboratory and expanding its capabilities in microbiology, chemistry and epidemiology,” the release said, and add staff in Fort Collins, Colorado.
The reorganization of the Research, Education and Economics Mission Area will bring “research closer to our stakeholders,” the department said.
The changes to REE include the decommissioning of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, which will involve moving its research programs to other facilities.
“BARC currently includes more than 400 buildings, many of which are outdated or underutilized, and requires significant deferred maintenance and ongoing investment. Transitioning these programs will allow USDA to modernize its research footprint, improve safety, and better connect researchers with the producers they serve,” USDA’s release said.
“Many BARC research projects will be moved closer to the stakeholders they serve,” according to USDA’s website on the REE reorganization. “These moves are commonsense – and they present ARS researchers with more opportunities to engage directly with the farmers and ranchers who produce our food. In addition to the locations below, some work maintained at BARC is slated to be relocated to the U.S. National Arboretum, the National Agricultural Library, and the Smithsonian Institution.”
Most of the research now being done at BARC will be moved to 27 locations around the country, according to USDA.
“The National Agricultural Statistics Service will be relocating some positions located in the NCR, as well as some positions outside the NCR, to St. Louis or other NASS offices,” USDA said in its release. “NASS will also be maintaining a field presence to continue to collect information and provide vital statistical services to American farmers and ranchers.”
“Also, as part of the USDA Reorganization Plan, the South Building will be closing,” according to a message to Agricultural Research Service employees from Administrator Joon Park. “USDA has identified three potential NCR relocation sites for staff impacted by the South building closure and whose positions will remain in the NCR, at the George Washington Carver Center and the National Agricultural Library, both in Beltsville, Maryland, and the Sidney R. Yates building in Washington, D.C.”
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*Sourced from Agri-Pulse.