Food and agriculture research has stopped at federally-funded university labs across the country after President Donald Trump froze the U.S. Agency for International Development last month.
USAID gives humanitarian assistance and works to promote U.S. interests abroad through public health and human rights efforts. The agency also provides millions of dollars to 17 labs housed at U.S. universities through its Feed the Future program. But an executive order last month paused all USAID operations for 90 days while the administration reviews its programs.
At the Soybean Innovation Lab, based at the University of Illinois, funds were shut off quickly after Trump’s order, said lab director Peter Goldsmith. The lab expects to permanently close in April, and Goldsmith said he had to lay off the lab's staff of 30 people.
“I told staff to focus on themselves and their families,” Goldsmith said. “That's really the priority right now, is they need to find work and move on. They, like me, were totally caught by surprise, and so that's a tough, tough road.”
Some labs have been able to avoid layoffs for the time being with the help of their individual universities. Michigan State University allowed its Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research, Capacity and Influence to keep charging required salaries and non-cancellable costs like rent to its account while the funding is frozen, said lab director David Tschirley.
“If it gets all resolved, if there's clarity by mid-April, we shouldn't have to lay anybody off,” he said. “If the lack of clarity goes past that time, it becomes increasingly very difficult, because it's a big economic burden on the university.”
Tschirley, who also chairs a council of the innovation labs, said the Soybean Innovation Lab layoffs are the largest he’s heard of – so far.
“The longer this goes on, you know, the more that's going to change,” Tschirley said.
Research reach
The labs researched topics such as food security and resilience of specific crops, like wheat or peanuts. They’re headquartered in about a dozen U.S. Land Grant universities – including Kansas State University, the University of Nebraska and Purdue University – and work with other universities and institution partners in the U.S. and abroad.
Researchers at the Soybean Innovation Lab were working with farmers in Africa to improve crop production and breed soybean varieties that are resistant to diseases, like soybean rust, said Kerry Clark, a researcher at the University of Missouri who’s been working with the Soybean Innovation Lab since 2014.
The research is also helpful for U.S. farmers, who can better prepare for those same diseases and glean insights on growing soybeans in dry conditions, she said.
“We've just basically in the wink of an eye shut down massive amounts of research that would benefit farmers, not only in the United States but across the world,” Clark said.
The labs are also building relationships in different countries, and creating new markets for U.S. producers, Tschirley said.
“The peanut growers sell a lot of peanuts for the U.S. food program,” he said. “They sell a lot of peanuts to the World Food Program for food aid. Same with the soybean growers. Same with the wheat growers, right? And so they see the labs as an asset in that way.”
Some of the work might be able to continue if partners have other funding streams. But it’s difficult without the lab, Goldsmith said.
“We have no funds to pay folks to water the trials, water the plants,” Goldsmith said. “So everything will be lost. The partners, our clients, hopefully, will try to continue on their own, but they don't have the technical support.”
What’s next?
Trump’s executive order calls for a review of each program under USAID. Goldsmith said he’s working to expedite that review, which he hopes will help resume the funding – and the work the labs are doing.
“If something were to change between now and April 15, everything can be undone, and appointments can resume, provided, obviously, people may have gone and found new work,” he said.
But uncertainty remains on the future of USAID. Billionaire Elon Musk recently said his newly created “Department of Government Efficiency” is working to shut down the agency with support from Trump. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who earlier this month said he’s the acting administrator of USAID, said the agency is under a review and there could be “potential reorganization." USAID websites, including the Feed the Future website, are currently down.
Tschirley said that the innovation labs are working with the Association of Land Grant Universities and with local representatives and senators to emphasize the benefits of the work in the U.S.
“We just need that to break through the noise and get some decisions made for funding to be able to start again,” Tschirley said.
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
Harvest Public Media's Jim Meadows contributed to this report.
