Will we still have American plants to eat?

Andyross

Before he was abruptly fired last month, Derek Copeland worked as a trainer at the US Department of Agriculture’s National Dog Detection Training Center, preparing beagles and Labrador retrievers to sniff out plants and animals that are invasive or vectors for zoonotic diseases, like swine fever. Copeland estimates the NDDTC lost about a fifth of its trainers and a number of other support staff when 6,000 employees were let go at the USDA in February as part of a government-wide purge orchestrated by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/doge-cuts-to-usda-may-open-door-to-invasive-species-higher-food-prices/

Blackbird

Andyross Copeland estimates the NDDTC lost about a fifth of its trainers and a number of other support staff

Which means about 80% of its trainers remain… plus apparently all of the currently-trained “employee” dogs. I suspect life will go on, the earth will still rotate, and there will still be American plants to eat.

egeezer

Andyross worked as a trainer at the US Department of Agriculture’s National Dog Detection Training Center, preparing beagles and Labrador retrievers to sniff out plants and animals that are invasive or vectors for zoonotic diseases, like swine fever. Copeland estimates the NDDTC lost about a fifth of its trainers and a number of other support staff

A better way to manage resource actions would be to have a best practices plan to maintain continuity and quality of service as part of the process. There has been no indication of such a plan being implemented or even considered. Food safety and security has been considered a function of critical infrastructure, and virulent transmissible disease affecting food supplies has led to supply chain disruptions and could lead to more.

real_aurgathor

While the US imports many things (i.e. fruits during winter) overall, the US is a net food exporter, so unless there is some drastic change, there shouldn’t be any issue with basic food items.

Rook

I think the bigger issue, as explained later in the article, is that the USDA was already under-funded, and cuts there will turn small problems into big ones.
I’m not as concerned about incoming food going to waste as I am about an invasive species getting in and disrupting food production here.

I never really thought bird flu would be a big problem and yet over 160 million birds have been culled so far because of it. The current price of eggs, and egg shortages in some places, are the result.

Anyway, we’ll still have enough plants to eat, it’ll just get more expensive if things go badly. Firing a bunch of people at USDA just makes that more likely to happen.