Land-grant universities, others concerned about ERS, NIFA leaving Washington

Opposition is growing to the Trump administration’s proposal to move the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture out of the Washington metropolitan area. Orlando McMeans, chair of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Board on Agriculture Assembly (BAA) and vice president for research and public service at West Virginia State University, said Friday that the board is concerned with the proposed move. “In particular, moving NIFA — the premier agricultural science entity in the world and the linchpin of the 156-year agricultural research, education, and extension partnership between the federal government and the land-grant university system — raises important questions that need to be addressed before further executive action is taken,” McMeans said.