USDA probes foreign research with eye on ‘America First’

The Agriculture Department is applying more scrutiny to research done by its employees alongside noncitizens.

The directives, laid out in a memo which went out to USDA employees and research institutions earlier this month, are part of a broader effort to increase security measures around the U.S. food supply — especially when it comes to foreign adversaries like North Korea, China, Russia and Iran.

The sweeping instructions require recipients of USDA funding to disclose contracts associated with “foreign entities and certify they are not party to a malign foreign talent recruitment program.”

As a result of the policy, USDA also laid off 70 researchers earlier this month who were from “countries of concern” — which included Syria, South Africa, Cuba and Venezuela.

The policy is a part of the “National Farm Security Action Plan” unveiled by the department alongside other members of the administration’s cabinet to boost domestic manufacturing, research and production.

Internal and outside researchers agree food security is important. But they say added scrutiny on collaborative agriculture research could hurt U.S. innovation. The directives this month also come on the heels of cuts to research generally to colleges and universities — many of which partner with the USDA on their work.

The new policy directs USDA employees to stop collaborating and communicating with people who might be from the list of countries of concern.

The directive also prohibits all USDA employees and affiliates from recruiting foreign workers, and requires prior approval before accepting outside employment or coauthoring scholarly publications with a foreign national.

“The broader impacts will be devastating. There was quite a bit of collaboration between the [Agricultural Research Service] and Chinese scientists,” said Ethan Roberts, president of a local chapter of the union that in part represents employees at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research.

Foreign research collaborations

In the U.S., about 14% of those with bachelor’s degrees, 26% with master’s and 42% with doctoral degrees working in biological, agricultural and other life sciences were foreign-born in 2021, according to the latest data from the National Science Foundation. Most were naturalized citizens; others were lawful permanent residents or temporary visa holders.

While the National Institutes of Health, which is within HHS, has not put this kind of scrutiny on foreign-born researchers, it has prohibited certain grant dollars from going to “foreign entities.”

The researchers laid off at USDA were noncitizens working as contractors, mostly as post-doctoral researchers and students, according to the American Federation of Government Employees union which represents workers in the Agricultural Research Service arm of the USDA. The majority were Chinese nationals.

Late last week, Chinese nationals with green cards were informed they would be reinstated following a reinvestigation — but no timeline was provided, according to the union.

“It’s the silencing and the prevention of science being released to the world,” Roberts said. “We deal with food safety and food productivity. If those discoveries are not being shared, then there’s not going to be progress on making our food safer and making our crops more productive.”

For example, one recent research collaboration between the USDA and Chinese scientists looked into how diseases can affect crop yields and plants.

New policies go further than past regulations

The USDA previously reviewed research from noncitizens, but it was rare, Roberts said. There were some limitations on countries, mainly Iran, he said — but the new policy applies to all foreign nationals, meaning any foreign collaborations already in process must be interrupted.

Others in the research community who work with USDA are also feeling the ripple effects from the new rules.

Christina Hagerty, an associate professor at Oregon State University, conducts research alongside USDA. Her research focuses on the wheat growers in the Pacific Northwest.

The postdoctoral scholar in her lab is a foreign national from Nepal. Because her lab shares a space with USDA, she has been told by federal colleagues that scholar now can’t enter the lab or work by himself without constant supervision by ARS staff.

“In eastern Oregon, wheat isn’t just a crop. It’s the backbone of the rural economy,” Hagerty said. Her lab’s research wants to help family wheat farmers become more profitable in the face of various challenges such as drought, soil health issues, and the use of fungicides.

She said the new rules impede her research and limits resources, and could also hinder a rising class of scientists.

“Not only will our publication flow be reduced, but it’s going to have significant impacts on the careers of this next generation of scientists,” she said.

“We’re working on global issues,” Hagerty said. “We need the best and the brightest, regardless of their country of origin, to help us solve these problems.”