Local workers laid off by USDA hear rumors of reinstatement amid ongoing uncertainty.

Abrupt decisions by the Trump administration and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to dismantle federal agencies and trim the federal workforce are rippling across various local sectors.

In recent weeks, agriculture, in particular, has felt the whiplash of these decisions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is the backbone for Monterey County’s biggest economic sector, responsible for providing funding, offering technical and financial assistance for soil health, water conservation and plant disease preparedness, to name a few.

Thousands of USDA workers have been terminated nationally, including at least six locally. In light of these layoffs, the California Specialty Crops Council wrote a letter supporting the reinstatement of five local employees at the USDA Agricultural Research Station (ARS) in Salinas. The research hub was expanded and reopened less than two years ago; however, the federal spending bill approved March 14 allocated $0 to Agricultural Research Service operations.

“Can there be realignments? Of course, but you don’t do it just by slashing and burning, and that’s what they’re doing,” says U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, whose district includes the Salinas Valley.

The layoffs impacted probationary employees who had been with USDA for less than a year. They are biological science technicians who focused on detecting and measuring new diseases, managing greenhouse operations for the country’s only public celery breeding program and more.

“Without the continued support of these technicians, the research teams at Salinas ARS will face serious setbacks that could compromise critical projects essential to improving our nation’s food supply and agricultural resilience,” Gary Obenauf, executive director of the California Specialty Crops Council, said in a statement to USDA administrators.

The loss of these positions also impact organizations like the California Leafy Greens Research Board, where the USDA’s public breeding program provides needed plant material for the industry, focusing on breeding resistance to plant pathogens, diseases and viruses across key crops like lettuce, strawberries and melons.

Adding to the confusion, USDA released a statement on March 11 announcing plans to rehire the fired probationary employees: “By Wednesday, March 12, the Department will place all terminated probationary employees in pay status and provide each with back pay, from the date of termination. The Department will work quickly to develop a phased plan for return-to-duty, and while those plans materialize, all probationary employees will be paid.”

Yet as of March 18, Salinas USDA workers have yet to be informed of whether or not they will actually be rehired.

“I just waste a lot of time because things just change and change, and then I’m reevaluating over and over again what to do,” says one federal employee who was laid off and spoke to the Weekly on the condition of anonymity due to current uncertainty about job prospects. “Even if I have my job back, I don’t know how secure that is or how long I’ll have it.”

For the Resource Conservation District (RCD) of Monterey County, programs that researchers were going to write grant applications for have disappeared, such as the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production.

“We had started an application process in January,” says Laura Murphy, a soil scientist with RCD, “but when we went back in February to check on some details and move our application forward, it was nowhere to be found.”

On March 5, RCD received notice that the lease for the USDA Service Center in Salinas, where they work alongside federal partners, will not be renewed in August, with no plans for moving elsewhere. Separate from the USDA research station, this center assists farmers with disaster aid, crop reports and houses agencies like the Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service.