The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently reduced its workforce by 6,000 employees. This reduction included about a fifth of the trainers at the National Dog Detection Training Center (NDDTC). These trainers prepare dogs to detect invasive species and zoonotic disease vectors. One affected trainer, Derek Copeland, had been training the only dog in Florida capable of detecting the Giant African land snail, a significant threat to local agriculture. The NDDTC also trains dogs to detect other invasive species like spotted and lantern flies and Asian longhorn beetles. The cuts have severely impacted the Plant Protection and Quarantine program, which lost hundreds of staff members. Current USDA employees report that the remaining teams are operating as a skeleton crew. The dismissed staff were highly specialized, with many holding advanced degrees and years of training. These cuts could lead to increased risks from invasive species and higher food prices.
Inequality Media Civic Action
@imcivicaction
·
Mar 17 Trump and DOGE fired USDA employees who held vital positions inspecting our food and protecting supply chains from invasive pests.
Experts now warn that food could rot while waiting for inspections, which could lead to even higher grocery prices.
“Efficiency.”
CBP
@CBP
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Feb 14 It’s #ValentinesDay, let’s show some love to our ag specialists! In 2025, they inspected 1.1B cut flowers, intercepted 1,158 shipments containing insects & pests, with 627 that could have introduced diseases into the U.S.
Learn more about them: https://go.dhs.gov/ZJS
𝕏chan News
@BreakingNews4X
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57m Did they actually cost us more by this political stunt? We are paying for these political stunts that they know, when they do it, is unconstitutional.
USDA hires back all 6,000 fired a month ago with back pay. They basically got a month paid vacation.
The Conscious Underground
@AllanAgard
·
21h MAGA DOGE’s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US Grocery Prices to Rise and Invasive Species to Spread as 1000s of US Department of Agriculture employees, including food inspectors & disease-sniffing-dog trainers, remain out of work, leaving food to rot in ports & pests to proliferate
Will Ragland
@citizenwillis
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Mar 17 WIRED: “DOGE’s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US Grocery Prices to Rise and Invasive Species to Spread.
Thousands of USDA employees, including food inspectors and disease-sniffing-dog trainers, remain out of work, leaving food to rot in ports and pests to proliferate.”
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