By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Some USDA researchers might not make the move from Washington, DC to Kansas City when the Agriculture Department shifts the locations of two divisions.
The Agriculture Secretary announced earlier this month the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture will be moving from the nation’s capital to the Midwest.
US Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas supports the move, but understands some USDA employees might not be enthusiastic about it.
“The suggestion that people wouldn’t want to live (in Kansas City), wouldn’t want to transfer; I would guess there are people within USDA, who work there now who have roots here in Washington, D.C. whose families are here, they may make the decision to not be relocated,” Moran tells KFEQ Farm Director Melissa Gregory during a recent interview in Washington, D.C.
Moran says the agencies will benefit from being closer to farmers and ranchers as well as the agriculture research conducted by Kansas State, the University of Missouri, and Iowa State.
The Associated Press reports critics say the research agencies have lost veteran employees and been unable to fill vacancies since the USDA announced last year it was considering moving their headquarters. Opponents also argued that moving them will make it harder for federal policymakers to get objective research that might raise questions about President Donald Trump’s policies.
The two agencies employ about 550 people.
St. Joseph might well benefit from the move.
St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce President Patt Lilly speculates the benefits to St. Joseph depend greatly on where the new offices will eventually be located.
“Potentially, the benefit to us I think in part will depend on where they decide to locate in the Kansas City area,” Lilly tells Barry Birr, host of the KFEQ Hotline. “If they locate in the area north of downtown, in Platte County potentially around the airport, I think the opportunity for people here who have an interest to take jobs at the USDA offices becomes more of a real opportunity.”
While the USDA announced earlier this month it would move the two divisions, it hasn’t settled on a site, which could be either on the Missouri or the Kansas side of the metroplex or split between the two.
Lilly says the move simply builds on the area’s reputation as a growing life science, agriculture corridor.
“The technology behind agriculture continues to evolve at a very rapid pace, and so the opportunity for us as a community to continue to take advantage of that, to continue to attract companies with an agricultural component, whether they’re providing services to ag or whether they’re actually providing a product to ag, I think becomes much more of a real opportunity,” according to Lilly.