UPDATE: As of Dec. 1, NPR reports funding for USDA's Beltsville, Md., research center has been resored. No link available.
"Industry groups and scientists have urged the Trump administration to reconsider its plan to close a renowned Agriculture Department center in Maryland and disperse its work around the country."
"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."
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