I don’t want to make this political. Just passing information. I have direct knowledge of the situation at least USDA 2 germplasm centers. Closure very likely. Our location directory (not grin) was taken off line. Emergency meeting at 12. Pray for all of us that dedicated their life to advance plant science. And all our families that suddenly lost their livelihood.
22 Likes
Losing employment is very difficult for anyone, regardless of circumstances- definitely wishing the best for anyone in that situation.
8 Likes
Is there a plan on what to do with the material? Volunteer non profits? Other country’s similar organizations?
That’s what I’d like to know. I mentioned on a previous, now closed for over-politicization thread, that it might be nice for a private organization to step in. There’s currently an organization that helps promote and preserve heritage livestock. Perhaps something similar could be done for plants? To be honest, conserving plant varieties is a simple task compared to livestock breeds. With livestock multiple herds/flocks have to be maintained by multiple individuals with careful breeding and trading occurring frequently to preserve genetic diversity while keeping true to type.
Plant varieties could actually be preserved much easier. If a couple collectors maintained a few specimens of each variety it would do it. The organization could be just a database that allowed members to contact others with desired varieties and, preferably alerted them when there were too few plants held by too few collectors of any given variety.
2 Likes
Agreed, uncertainty regarding work can be quite stressful. I don’t think it’s the worst time in history to be job searching though. At least in my area we are seeing a lot of jobs come open recently. We’ve had a manufacturing plant open nearby and several data centers in various stages. They’ve provided a lot of opportunities. A lot of folks have also left W2 employment to become self employed in various fields. The internet has made a lot possible. Obviously the pay isn’t necessarily great if you’re entering a new field at the bottom, but a lot of them are not too bad either. If someone has good work ethic and willingness to learn new things, they would easily survive, at least in the job market here. Obviously job markets are super super local.
2 Likes
No. The plan is to cease all operations and incur no further costs.
4 Likes
FWIW today’s press release doesn’t appear to mention GRIN
News article from a couple of days ago:
The USDA cuts were minor compared to cuts by other agencies. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it had implemented a Trump executive order by cutting 11 positions related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, and 161 positions related to environmental justice.
DOGE did not provide details about the terminated USDA grants, only saying that three funded “Central American gender assessment consultant services,” “Brazil forest and gender consultant services,” and the “women in forest carbon initiative mentorship program.”
USDA did not respond to a request for more details.
2 Likes
As of right now, the EO is for the heads to get rid of all non-essential employees. This after they already fired all hires still in the probationary period, which by the way means under 2 year from hire date, not that they had any performance issues. The centers will be re-structured, whatever that may mean. One of the germplasm centers is down to 3 people for the whole collection. Not sure how they will cut any more people without making it unworkable. I like the suggestion to create a system so growers know who has what germplasm. Do not assume the grin resources will continue to be available.
*I have noticed the news make it seem like the cuts were minor, to only some agencies. They were not. What happened yesterday was mass layoffs, across the board and not done in a strategic way, just cut and break making the function of the agencies a tall order for those that remain. The second round is this new EO. I care about my research and the material as much as I care about my employment. Please do not make this thread about politics. Start a new thread about organizing to ensure access to the material of the species you care about.
11 Likes
If there is no one left to water the repository in Winters, much of that material will be dead by the end of summer. I don’t know if they can work something out with the university, but from what I understand management of that collection is entirely separate.
We do not know exactly what the plan is.
1 Like
This is something I really went hard on with emailing my Congress critters.
If anything the germplasm centers need MORE HELP. And more open access to germplasm.
Not free to all. But available to those with a bonafide documented purpose that serves the stakeholders.
I already heard back from one staffer. Farmers, ranchers and nurseries are extremely supportive of keeping GRIN up and running.
One of my points was if GRIN is eliminated; how do we obtain rare germplasm? Strike down APHIS and let diseased material in from across the planet? Not a good idea IMO.
6 Likes
Curious if anyone has an idea of what material is at risk? (I don’t mean from the cuts, I mean, which varieties are at risk of being lost because few exist in private collections)
I wonder how many members on this very site have a few of them. I’m sure many of us have a little extra space we could toss in a few heritage varieties of whatever we are already growing. It’s not like the livestock where you need a large area separate from your modern stock.
From my understanding, though I haven’t personally used them, a lot of folks complain about the USDA stock being hard to access for a small breeder without connections. Even if the program is restored to 100% capacity it may be useful to have as much as possible in private collections anyway. Plus future cuts could be deeper. While I know the “right” solution is a hot political topic, I’ve yet to hear anyone on any side argue that the US govt is healthy financially.
3 Likes
makes sense; how will they deal with disposal? especially with plants, it may not be safe to just “throw away a bunch of blackberries”
1 Like
I would not be surprised a few members have very oddball varieties. We have Pervomaiskoie which grows very well here so far. And Pionier from Romania that is scrapy but a bit of a slow grower. Both USDA-GRIN.
I have a thing for east european plants because quite a few are sandy loam lovers.
I have an request in this year of mostly rare rootstock or historically dual rootstock use.
With one type picked just due to its care free annual bearing. Another from Hungry that is quite blight resistant.
2 Likes
Are those apples I assume?
I sent off a firm email to my congressman minutes ago. Please continue networking as you are and maybe some progress can be made. I hope so.
2 Likes
I think volunteer help is available for the repositories but it’s often turned down.
A local public rose garden needed lots of work years ago. I volunteered my crew and I for a week free. The person in charge knew we were qualified, checked with higher-ups and was told “No, liability issues”. Historic roses and obscure canna cultivars were trashed. The rare canna burn pile was 6’ high, couldn’t be sold as a benefit. It would be unfair competition to local nurseries.
5 Likes
I just got a “remember when” type prompt with this picture, I think from 2013 collecting scions from the pear ropository in Corvallis 
8 Likes
Mr, Postman was great.
3 Likes
I don’t think any of us have any idea of what we stand to lose. What accessions have made it into wider distribution are varieties that were tested and found to be superior in some way to what was generally available (some of the Central Asian pomegranates, for example), and varieties of historic and/or cultural importance that someone thought to look for. That’s just a tiny drop of the genetic material that’s housed in these collections.
There are over 4,000 accession of grapevines alone at the Winters repository. I can guarantee you that only a small fraction of those have ever been distributed. Some are the only vines of that variety in existence. Many are wild species that have no immediate value to anyone besides plant breeders and researchers.
A point I made in the other thread is that part of the value of the USDA repositories, that private collections often lack, is their relatively unbiased nature towards adding material. New accessions don’t need to have any extrinsic value to become part of the collection. There’s no prejudice towards a certain set of traits. A wild, completely inedible accession gets the same priority in treatment as a variety with delicious fruit.
From what I understand, that’s because many of the collections were already running with minimal personnel due to budget cuts.
14 Likes