Federal Research Cuts
This week proved a painful one for the grape research community and its many vital contributions to the American grape and wine industry.
At least seven employees of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) were terminated in California, Washington, New York, and Hawaii, thus ending or diminishing important research on smoke exposure, grape breeding, precision agriculture and entomology. In addition, all USDA federal grant programs are under review, some normal grant cycles are on pause, and conference grants are unavailable for application.
In line with the Administration’s promise to reduce the size of government, newly sworn-in Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins fired thousands of USDA staff on her first day, with additional cuts expected.
Wine is a farm product, and the research USDA has conducted over the years, as well as the various grant programs, have helped the grape and wine industry tremendously. At this point it is impossible to assess the total impact of these and future actions, but it is certainly not positive.
The National Grape Research Alliance is a 501-c-3 nonprofit educational organization which does extremely important work for the overall grape industry (juice, wine, table grapes, raisins). The NGRA press release from President Donnell Brown, who does a great job, is at this LINK. WineAmerica is a proud supporter of NGRA, and we encourage all others to support it as well. It’s a smart investment in our future.