What USDA’s Reorganization Means for the Future of Agriculture Policy

Last week, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a comprehensive reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture aimed at “restoring the department’s core mission” to support farmers and rural communities.

The plan will relocate thousands of USDA employees out of DC into five regional hubs – Raleigh, NC, Fort Collins, CO, Kansas City, MO, Indianapolis, IN, and Salt Lake City, UT. In that process, it will close offices and labs across DC and the country while also consolidating programs and centralizing functions like grants and communications.

This reorganization will fundamentally shift how USDA delivers services, influences interagency work, and supports science and conservation. The potential benefits, such as bringing staff closer to producers, are clear, but so are the risks.

Critical programs like conservation assistance, wildfire resilience, and agricultural research depend on deep institutional knowledge and cross-agency coordination. As the USDA shrinks its footprint in Washington, it remains unclear how these officials will show up at key decision-making moments.

There’s also a question of how many USDA employees will choose to quit rather than move their families to another city. Secretary Rollins and team have already indicated that they expect attrition to be high.

USDA reorganization seems to be an indicator of what’s to come across all agencies. How well this is carried out will signal to other departments whether the risk is worth it to decentralize their agency staff.