- What Happened: Trump plans to shut down the 115-year-old Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, the country’s largest USDA research hub, and scatter its programs, staff, and collections across multiple states. Scientists and farm groups warn the relocation will upend critical research on pollinators, plant diseases, food safety, and crop resilience.
- Why It Matters: Closing BARC would dismantle decades of core agricultural science, driving out experts, destroying rare collections, and setting research back years. Experts say the move threatens U.S. food security and cripples the nation’s agricultural capacity.
…Nestled across 6,500 acres in suburban Maryland sits the country’s largest and oldest agricultural research center, responsible for scientific breakthroughs that have touched on all aspects of American life. There, generations of government scientists bred the smaller, meatier turkey now ubiquitous at Thanksgiving tables, waged war on a fungus threatening global chocolate production and devised a method to measure artery-clogging trans fats. In the next few years, however, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, or BARC, will shutter — its research operations dispersed across the country as part of a reorganization by the Agriculture Department. Officials have characterized the plan as part of an effort to save taxpayer dollars and bring the agency closer to farmers and rural communities. Critics argue that the move will pose logistical challenges, disturb and perhaps imperil continuing research and most likely lead to the departures of scores of experienced scientists. “It’s a huge gamble,” said Matthew Mulica, who runs the Honey Bee Health Coalition, a network of agriculture groups, beekeepers and scientists. “Could you even move the facility? Even if you could, moving BARC will put us back 10 years. We can ill afford that. It would be catastrophic for all kinds of agricultural products.” The 115-year-old center is the most comprehensive agricultural research complex in the country and perhaps the world. Its 17 departments focus on the widest range of research among the 90 locations of the Agricultural Research Service, the Agriculture Department’s science agency. It employs hundreds of researchers and other personnel, including more than a third of “super grade” scientists — those with the highest rank of government employment — within the agency. And it collaborates with a range of other government agencies like NASA, as well as with nearby universities…”
See also The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) will receive $6 million in federal funding to modernize infrastructure and ensure continued operations at the nation’s largest agricultural research facility, U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks announced Tuesday, Nov. 25.
