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The Trump administration says food security is national security. And yet some say Trump's depletion of the federal workforce is putting America's farms at risk. They warn that diseases long eradicated could return, leading to higher food prices and hurdles for farm exports. NPR's Andrea Hsu looks into those concerns.
ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: Ashley Randle is a fifth-generation dairy farmer. She also leads the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources. They're not a huge farming state, but they do have some famous exports.
ASHLEY RANDLE: Like cranberries and seafood.
HSU: And to get those goods out of the country, they need federal employees to certify that they're healthy. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service - or APHIS - does some of that, and also helps the state respond to pests and diseases that can wipe out crops and spread through livestock.
RANDLE: Being able to be nimble and respond as quickly as possible is incredibly important.
HSU: But Randle says the USDA veterinarian they'd call if a farmer discovered a sick cow has left, taking the government's offer to resign with pay through September. In fact, she's heard many of USDA's area veterinarians in charge have quit.
RANDLE: Our key contacts, just at the state level, are no longer our contacts.
HSU: In all, some 1,300 people have resigned from APHIS since February. Those who are still there and even those who've opted to leave are fearful of speaking out. But Kevin Shea has been speaking out, and he's not holding back.
KEVIN SHEA: It's been pretty shocking.
HSU: Shea spent 45 years at USDA, most of that at APHIS. He retired in January.
SHEA: There's no way APHIS can do its job with 1,300 fewer people. I can't believe that hardly any of them wanted to leave.
HSU: He says many were intimidated into leaving, told they could be fired or that they'd lose their civil service protections, making them easier to fire for any reason. A USDA spokesperson told NPR APHIS' mission-critical, front-line employees were assured their positions were safe, but Shea said people had lost trust. The feeling was the new administration did not understand what APHIS does.
SHEA: It's essentially keeping pest and diseases out of American agriculture.
HSU: Which Shea says they've been pretty successful at doing over the decades.
SHEA: And that gives us a trade advantage with the rest of the world. And it also creates an abundant and, despite recent price increases in groceries, still comparatively the cheapest food supply around the world.
HSU: But you can see how that could change quickly. Avian flu continues to wipe out tens of millions of chickens every year, sending egg prices soaring. Citrus greening disease, caused by a sap-sucking insect, has already wiped out most of Florida's orange crops.
SHEA: But we're trying to save California. If we don't have a fully functioning APHIS, that's at risk.
HSU: And then there are diseases that APHIS already eradicated, like New World screwworm, a parasite that burrows into the open wounds of animals or people. It's resurfaced in Mexico. The U.S. recently halted imports of live animals across the southern border because of this threat. Still, Shea says, there are other ways screwworm could get in.
SHEA: And so to be that close is concerning.
HSU: Those concerns are shared by Beth Thompson, South Dakota state veterinarian. But she's still holding out to see what the impact of changes at USDA will be.
BETH THOMPSON: We're still waiting for, well, what's next?
HSU: She has heard that some of APHIS' core work will continue.
THOMPSON: Import-export and also disease response will remain priorities for them.
HSU: But some programs will probably go away, she says. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said she's working to make USDA more efficient and effective for the American people. She lifted the hiring freeze in order to refill some of the roles that have just been vacated. Kevin Shea wonders, where's the efficiency in that?
SHEA: If this administration had decided they were willing to take risk with a lesser APHIS, OK, that's your prerogative.
HSU: But he says encouraging practically every employee to quit could ultimately hurt farmers and ranchers, and the food system Americans depend on.
Andrea Hsu, NPR News.
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