Maintaining Industry Connections During Federal Research Disruption
How our team worked to keep information moving between researchers, growers and industry organizations during a period of federal staffing changes
In February 2025, staffing changes across federal agencies reached agricultural research programs in the Pacific Northwest.
USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) locations across the region were affected, including positions connected to berry and grape research. For the Pacific Northwest small fruit industry, the changes created immediate questions around research continuity, communication and the long-term work that had gone into establishing specialized regional research positions.
Keeping the industry informed
As information developed, one of the immediate challenges was helping the industry understand what was happening and how the changes connected to regional agriculture.
We began collecting and summarizing available information for growers and industry members while staying in communication with researchers and others connected to the affected programs.
That work included sharing updates through industry channels and grower workshops and gathering perspectives about how changes to federal research capacity could affect farms, research programs and the broader small fruit community.
Connecting regional concerns with a broader conversation
Some of the affected positions represented years of work by growers, researchers, universities and industry organizations to identify research needs and build support for specialized expertise in the region.
Among the positions affected were research roles connected to blueberry and strawberry breeding and precision agriculture—areas where the Pacific Northwest industry had previously worked to establish the need for dedicated research capacity.
We also worked with people traveling to Washington, D.C., who had advocated for berry, grape and specialty crop research over many years, helping communicate what was being experienced within the regional industry. Conversations were also taking place across the broader specialty-crop community as organizations worked to understand the effects of the staffing changes.
Maintaining connections during uncertainty
The situation highlighted the role effective communication can play when changes affecting research happen quickly.
Regional agricultural research is connected to relationships built over time between growers, researchers, universities, industry organizations and federal programs. When one part of that network changes, understanding the effects requires information to continue moving between those groups.
During this period, our role was to help maintain those connections—gathering information, sharing what was known and helping regional perspectives remain part of the broader conversation around agricultural research and industry updates.
That work became one example of how we serve as a communication bridge between the Pacific Northwest berry industry and the research systems supporting it.