In order to ensure that food supplies are not affected by foreign adversaries such as China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, and following national security reviews, the US Department of Agriculture has dismissed 70 foreign contract researchers.
A spokesperson for the USDA said: “The USDA has completed a thorough review of personnel appointed under contract, confirming that around 70 individuals originated from countries of concern... Contracted personnel from these countries can no longer participate in USDA projects.”
Henderson, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1657, stated that most of those dismissed were Chinese postdoctoral researchers who had signed two-year contracts with the Agricultural Research Service and were already vetted before being employed. Some of them only discovered on the 9th, upon arriving at work, that their access cards had been deactivated.
He noted that due to the federal hiring freeze being extended to October 15, the USDA would be unable to replace the terminated employees and would have to halt scientific work beneficial to farmers, such as a project developing a vaccine to target deadly toxins produced in undercooked beef.
He said: “We no longer have enough talent to advance these research projects. This puts us back by years, even decades.”
This union represents employees of the Agricultural Research Service, a research institution under the USDA in Albany, California.
On the 8th, US Secretary of Agriculture Rollins announced the 'National Agricultural Security Action Plan' to strengthen controls on foreign ownership of agricultural land, prevent foreign capital penetration, and protect food supply and national security. The plan includes prohibiting citizens of foreign adversaries from purchasing US farmland and terminating any existing research agreements with them.
Rollins stated at the time that these measures are critical for safeguarding America’s food supply.
Additionally, in a July 8 memorandum, Rollins prohibited USDA employees from publishing research conducted jointly with nationals from the four countries of concern without agency approval, and barred them from attending events organized by foreign adversaries.
Roberts, president of AFGE Local 3247, said that some employees at the research institution were informed at a meeting that all currently reviewed publications would be reanalyzed, and any publications co-authored with foreigners from the relevant countries would be rejected for publication.