MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's flagship research facility could be in their final days of work this week. That's because the USDA is relocating its scientists from that facility in a close-knit suburb of Washington, D.C., to labs across the country. Macy Byars with Harvest Public Media in Omaha, Nebraska, has been speaking with some lab employees about the move. And she's here to tell us more about it. Good morning, Macy.
MACY BYARS, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So, first of all, tell us what's so important about this research facility.
BYARS: Yeah, it's called the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center - or BARC. It's the oldest USDA lab at over 110 years old, and it's also the biggest. It sits on this huge 6,500-acre campus outside of D.C. in Maryland. And there are about 20 different research units there. Last summer, there were about 400 employees. And scientists at BARC study things like foodborne pathogens, plant diseases, crop yields. They're really on the front lines of threats that U.S.-grown food can face. And so many innovations have also come out of BARC, like pesticide mixtures and livestock management tools. Most people would probably recognize seedless red grapes, shelf-stable butter and the turkey breed we eat at Thanksgiving as some of BARC's famous inventions.
MARTIN: OK, good to know. So why is the administration closing the lab?
BYARS: Yeah, so the idea is that closing it would save money. The lab does need some repairs. And operating it in metro D.C. is generally expensive. It's part of a USDA reorganization plan announced in July 2025. The closure is part of that. And the plan is for scientists to move to labs all over the country and work closer to farmers. Like, for example, we have a lab here in Nebraska in a rural town called Clay Center that studies meat and animals.
MARTIN: Macy, you spoke to some employees at BARC. Are they willing to move? Are they ready to move?
BYARS: Yeah, it sort of varies. My sources inside BARC have told me that most employees there did choose not to take their relocation offer. Manan Sharma is one of them. He studied produce and foodborne pathogens there for almost two decades.
MANAN SHARMA: You're being asked to move to a place, site unseen. You don't know how your research will be affected by that.
BYARS: And many of these other labs are in really rural areas or small cities, very different from metro D.C. that they're used to. And in Sharma's case, he would've had to move his family as well. So he switched to a private sector job instead. I spoke to about a dozen former and current employees. They asked me not to use their names, as they worry about professional repercussions for speaking out. But many reported that they had no input in where they would go and they got few answers about relocations from USDA supervisors when asked. Some scientists took early retirements, and some did agree to move. Others, like Sharma, have already moved on.
MARTIN: OK, but if all these experienced research scientists with these specialized areas are not taking these offers, what effect do they think this will have on food safety?
BYARS: Yeah, they say the restructuring will hurt U.S. food safety by interrupting this really highly specialized research. BARC scientists have worked on things like cyclospora and New World screwworm, which have both affected the U.S. food supply this year. Here's Sharma again.
SHARMA: I think it's highly disappointing and highly wasteful not to continue that work. I mean, this work cost money, it cost resources.
BYARS: And for its part, the USDA tells me they've been in constant communication with employees about the relocation and closure process.
MARTIN: OK. Only a few seconds left here. Today was supposed to be the last day for the BARC lab, but it's still working. It's still open.
BYARS: That's right. There is a court case that could delay things or stop the closure. There's the federal government employee union challenging the reorganization. There's also a stay order, giving a California federal judge time to consider an injunction.
MARTIN: That's Macy Byars with Harvest Public Media. Macy, thank you.
BYARS: Thanks, Michel.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
