Job Cuts at UM Cereals Lab

The White House efforts to reduce the government workforce has hit close to home. Minnesota Wheat Executive Director Brian Sorenson said the small grains industry will feel the impact. “The cereal disease lab, it’s an ARS USDA facility that’s officed down at the St. Paul campus at the University of Minnesota. They lost four full-time researchers out of about seven so it’s a tremendous impact. A crop like wheat really needs long-term research. It needs that commitment long term in order to continue to fight the crop diseases and the issues that influence the production of wheat and keeping it a viable crop in the future.” Sorenson said this research is a food security issue.