USDA expected to lose two-thirds of research staff in move to Kansas City

he U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will lose nearly two-thirds of its staff at two research agencies as the department pushes ahead with a move to the Kansas City area. Sixty-seven percent of employees at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) will leave their jobs instead of uprooting for Kansas City, as will 57 percent of those currently working at the Economic Research Service (ERS), according to information from USDA. Internal estimates from ERS employees show 70 percent intend to leave USDA rather than move. Those two agencies are filled with the bulk of USDA researchers, who either study or fund research into food stamps, climate change, rural poverty and conservation farming...MORE