Editor’s note: This article was last updated with more details on Feb. 19.
On Thursday, Feb. 13, the Trump administration began serious cutbacks to the federal workforce, laying off recently hired employees across numerous agencies, including scientists and technicians working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture on tree fruit and grape research projects.
The extent of the layoffs targeting employees still in their probationary periods could extend to hundreds of thousands of employees, according to the Associated Press and National Public Radio. The layoffs were led by the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is an administration initiative and not a formal department.
The action includes scientists working on research priorities for the tree fruit and wine grape industries, such as the recently hired precision viticulture specialist based in Prosser, Washington, and several scientists studying smoke taint in wine, said Melissa Hansen, research director of the Washington State Wine Commission.
“This is blanketed across all federal government agencies, and I don’t think we know the full extent yet. We do know today that this affects research positions in Wenatchee and Wapato and Hood River where people work on projects of interest to our industry,” said Mark Powers, president of the Northwest Horticultural Council, which advocates for the tree fruit industry on federal issues.
Powers said it’s his understanding that two scientists at the lab in Wapato, Washington, where entomologists focus on management of X disease in cherry and codling moth in apples, have been let go, along with 10 or more from the Wenatchee, Washington, lab where the focus is on postharvest science.
The USDA lab in Geneva, New York, lost at least seven researchers working on apple rootstocks and grape genetics as well. Also, the new blueberry breeder who joined the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Horticultural Crops Production and Genetic Improvement Research Unit in Corvallis, Oregon, last fall will be laid off, according to sources familiar with the situation.
“We know this will have an impact,” Powers said.
Moreover, how NHC or industry members can best advocate for remedy was unclear on Friday. “Right now, there’s no roadmap,” Powers said. “The people who are going to make that roadmap aren’t even in place.”
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins was confirmed Feb. 13, and many more key positions remain to be filled. On Feb. 14, she issued a statement in support of the efforts to “workforce optimization” the USDA.
“I welcome DOGE’s efforts at USDA because we know that its work makes us better, stronger, faster, and more efficient. I will expect full access and transparency to DOGE in the days and weeks to come,” Rollins said in a press release promising more cuts and changes to come.
U.S. Representatives on the House Committee on Agriculture agree the federal government needs to cut spending to help reduce the $36 trillion federal debt, said U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., when Good Fruit Grower spoke with him on Feb. 18 in Yakima.
“It’s going to require a new way of looking at things,” Newhouse said.
However, he and his colleagues would prefer a more precise approach than across-the-board layoffs and are trying to convince the Trump administration to reinstate some of the “critical” employees.
Scientists who were fired received a mass email that states: “The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest,” according to a copy shared with Good Fruit Grower and reported in other news outlets.
That determination seems suspect, said Julie Tarara, a former USDA scientist who now works as a viticulturist for Results Partners, a vineyard management company. She spoke specifically about the termination of Jake Schrader, the recently hired precision viticulture specialist in Prosser; she and other industry members spent five years lobbying for the creation of the position and finding the right person to hire.
“We’re all under a lot of pressure to be more efficient and to make better use of technology to be more cost-effective in the global market, and they take away someone who was going to help us in the mission,” she said. “It’s a tremendous amount of time, effort and money to get folks set up to run a research program. It’s such a waste.”
Tarara expects it will also be difficult for these specialized scientists to find roles at land grant universities, which depend on shrinking grant dollars for research. Remaining scientists at the USDA have lost technicians and postdoctoral scientists that help run the research programs.
“Once you take that capacity away, I don’t see how you are going to build it back,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s effective, but our only option is to get on our horn and flood Congress with our concerns.”
The Hood River, Oregon, lab lost at least two people, including its new postharvest pathologist.
The lab, technically a “remote worksite” under the administrative direction of the Wenatchee facility, was located at Oregon State University’s Mid-Columbia Agricultural Research and Extension Center.
John Bennett, a postharvest pathologist, started there in December after moving from the ARS station in Kearneysville, West Virginia.
His position had been vacant for at least 1.5 years, but plant pathology had been high on the local tree fruit industry’s research wish list for many years prior, said Brian Pearson, director of the OSU station, typically called MCAREC.
“We were celebrating that we finally got this win,” he said.
All of the staff listings on the USDA Agricultural Research Service website for key research units in Corvallis, Wenatchee and Wapato have been stripped from the site as of Thursday.
—by Kate Prengaman and Ross Courtney
This story will be updated with more details about the impacts on tree fruit research programs as Good Fruit Grower learns more.
Thanks for publicizing this. I am also an ARS scientist who lost new hires on my unit. It is devastating across the country. My losses threaten global wheat crops due to loss of research on diseases. The public has no idea how we have protected food production systems. I fear that global famine will result followed by war and societal collapse.
Well stated. Lets hope cooler heads prevail and the law will be upheld. Lots of things that DJT is doing are illegal and need to be challenged.
Well written article. The public is ignorant and largely unphased by these cuts because the federal workforce has been demonized by MAGA extremists. I too am an ars scientist and some of the people mentioned in the article are my friends. It’s a sad day for America. This new administration is taking us down a dark unnecessary path and there certainly isn’t anything great about it!
The obvious attempt by this adminatration is to dismantle and destroy the federal workforce. Unfortunately we have been villifed by maga extremists and disinformation. America wont chamge its mind till they get pinched hard enough and become negatively impacted like I have at usda ars.
Nicely written article. I am with the agency as well and we are being pinched from all sides. Its clear what the intent is here and it has little to nothing to do with efficiency. This administration has demonized federal workers, so the public has embraced these cuts. It will take much pain and agony for the public to realize what they have done to others and themselves. I hope the farmers and growers feel the pain on this as we have so that they can turn the tide and vote for more progressive, forward thinking people in power who are going to protect their interests.