The first day of fall, 2025, was warm in Beltsville, Maryland, with the sun shining on United States federal Maryland legislators’ press conference, but the horizon for U.S. agricultural research is unclear. Maryland’s U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D), Angela Alsobrooks (D) and United States Congressmen Steny Hoyer (D) and Glenn Ivey (D) comprehensively opposed the disintegration of the Henry A. Wallace Agricultural Research Center at a press conference Monday. The major agricultural research shift was included in the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) reorganization plan announced in the summer.
The Maryland center, also known as BARC (Beltsville Agricultural Research Center) has existed since 1910 at the same site, devoting itself to advancing agriculture for both farmers and consumers. A 2024 Maryland Department of Commerce document states the center “conducts research to develop and transfer solutions to agricultural problems of high national priority and provide information access and dissemination.”
The gathered legislators cited a litany of scientific accomplishments to support a rethink of the USDA’s plan to end Beltsville’s legacy of accomplishment. According to the legislators, those have included grass seed development, enterprising and developing modern bug spray, crop hybridization, poultry breed development–including breeds that often feed Americans on Thanksgiving, and many other scientific discoveries that have addressed agriculture challenges in America.
Brooke Rollins, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture announced the closure in a memo in late July, as just a small part of a massive restructuring of the USDA. He wrote the effort is designed “to achieve improved effectiveness and accountability, enhanced services,reduced bureaucracy and cost savings for the American people.”
The downsizing also calls for eliminating all USDA area offices around the country, and consolidating the USDA’s 12 districts across the North American continent and Pacific Ocean into five USDA hubs and service centers. Rollins cited four principals for the major reorganization in his memo–aligning the workforce with resources and priorities; bringing the USDA closer to its customers; eliminating management layers, and consolidating support functions.
The five planned hubs would all be limited to the American South, Midwest, or West, in: I) Raleigh, North Carolina 2) Kansas City, Missouri 3) Indianapolis, Indiana 4) Fort Collins, Colorado and 5) Salt Lake City, Utah.
Rollins’ memo claims that “over the last four years, USDA’s workforce grew by approximately 8% and employees’ salaries increased by 14.5%,” but didn’t cite a source for the numbers. The geographic moves are expected to be accomplished over the next two years, leaving 2,000 USDA employees in the National Capital Region. The capital region is generally considered locally to be Washington D.C. and adjacent portions of Maryland and Virginia.
According to the Maryland document, in 2024, there were 800 USDA employees in the USDA’s Northeast Area Agricultural Research Service in Maryland alone. Many of those employees are conducting ongoing research in the testing farm fields of Beltsville.
On its website BARC highlighted current research including programs such as poultry disease, Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs, Soybean Genetics, and Dairy Cattle Health. The facilities include 17 research laboratories:
- Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory
- Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory
- Adaptive Cropping Systems Laboratory
- Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory
- Animal Biosciences & Biotechnology Laboratory
- Bee Research Laboratory
- National Germplasm Resources Laboratory
- Invasive Insect Biocontrol & Behavior Laboratory
- Genetic Improvement for Fruits & Vegetables Laboratory
- Molecular Plant Pathology Laboratory
- Soybean Genomics & Improvement Laboratory
- Systematic Entomology Laboratory
- Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory
- Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory
- Food Quality Laboratory
- Mycology and Nematology Genetic Diversity and Biology Laboratory
It is unclear if the agricultural scientists would continue their research as USDA employees if their positions were moved from Maryland. That was a reoccurring concern of the Congressional legislators, as they stood to speak to the press Monday afternoon.
“You can not uproot those scientists, and expect the same quality of work done–many eminent scientists here,” Senator Van Hollen said. ” We know they are not likely to just move their families to other parts of the country. That would be a huge loss of brain power and science power.”
“It is the nation’s agricultural powerhouse,” added Senator Alsobrooks. “It would be a huge mistake to close (this) down.”
“I remember from the (congressional) hearing what Chris (Senator Van Hollen) was talking about,” said Congressman Glenn Ivey representing Maryland’s 4th District. “The last time they moved, 50 percent of the scientists didn’t go.”
The new plan requires oversight by Congress, before being enacted. With Republican control of the federal legislature, Beltsville’s fate is unclear, but Van Hollen had indicated some Republican legislators had also indicated concern about the major shift in federal support to American agriculture.
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