The Hagstrom Report’s Jerry Hagstrom reported that “a new analysis released by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and Prospect Partners LLC finds that the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Farm Service Agency were among those hardest hit by USDA-wide staffing cuts in 2025, ‘leaving farmers in hundreds of counties with fewer local experts to turn to and their access to critical programs and services threatened.’“
“Drawing on U.S. Office of Personnel Management data and previously unpublished FSA county staffing records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the report documents the loss of roughly one in five USDA employees in a single year,” Hagstrom reported. “‘The cuts fell heavily on the farmer-facing field staff who deliver conservation and farm programs in local communities — even as the immediate Office of the Secretary grew by 18%,’ NSAC and Prospect Partners said.”
Politico’s Rachel Shin reported that the study “found that USDA reduced the field staff at the Farm Service Agency by 8 percent in 2025, according to Freedom of Information Act request data.”
“The report, shared first with MA, states that over a third of FSA offices lost employees by year’s end, with 42 offices ending 2025 with no county staff,” Shin reported. “The Natural Resources Conservation Service, the USDA agency that helps farmers with conservation projects on their land, lost 23 percent of its staff between January 2025 and January 2026, the report said. Over that period, 141 counties lost all of their NRCS staff.”
Meatingplace’s Peter Thomas Ricci reported “at USDA overall, nearly 20,000 staff were lost between January 2025 and January 2026, with the largest declines by state: a 41% reduction in Maryland; 37% in Virginia; 24% in Illinois; 19% in Texas; 28% in Kansas; 19% in Nebraska; 22% in Wisconsin; and 24% in Florida.”
“Regarding number of staff, the states with the largest losses were: Maryland (1,411), California (1,080), Texas (925), Virginia (896), Colorado (850), Oregon (682), New Mexico (640), Kansas (559), Georgia (546), and Missouri (514),” Thomas Ricci wrote. “At the agency level, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) was among the least-affected within USDA with a 10% reduction in staff. In comparison, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) — now under scrutiny as it responds to the New World screwworm infestation of Texas — lost 23% of its staff.”
“The Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) is down 24%, the Economic Research Service (ERS) is down 32%, and Rural Development is down 36%,” Thomas Ricci wrote.