The USDA has already lost thousands of research staff to former president Donald Trump's effort to shrink the federal government, even as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said farm research is a pillar of national security. The agency has said it is closing BARC and several other USDA buildings because of costly necessary renovations and underutilized space. “It is unlikely that senior scientists of this calibre with mature research partnerships and rich professional lives will simply move somewhere else,” said Donnell Brown, president of the National Grape Research Alliance, which depends on BARC research into vine stress and water usage. “You have a lot of people who have invested their time and effort in research for farmers across the country, and this plan would destroy that ongoing research,” he said. Rollins said in a July memo outlining the relocation effort that the BARC facility would be closed over several years to avoid disruptions to critical research.