The USDA draws 70 foreign workers from 4 contradictory countries, including China

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Friday that it had dismissed dozens of foreign contractual workers from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.

The cuts of approximately 70 workers followed a national security review for American food security.

A USDA spokesperson said contract workers came from “worrying countries” and could no longer work on USDA projects “.

The workers had been with the agricultural research service (ARS), the USDA research branch, Thomas Henderson, which represents the union for some of the researchers, said Reuters.

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The American Department of Agriculture said on Friday that it had dismissed dozens of foreign contractual workers in China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. (David Ake / Getty images)

ARS does research on the important areas for American farmers, such as pests, food security and climate change.

Most contract workers have been verified by post-doctoral Chinese researchers, some even arriving at work this week to discover that their badges no longer worked.

Earlier this month, USDA secretary Brooke Rollins announced in a new plan to ensure the safety of American agricultural land that contracts with workers from China, North Korea, Iran and Russia should be canceled, and nationals of these countries would not be authorized to buy agricultural land in the United States

All publications of the ARS project should also be reanalyzed and people co-written with researchers from the four countries will be refused, an ARS employee who is also president of the US Government Federation.

A banner showing an image of President Donald Trump is hung alongside a building from the Ministry of Agriculture in Washington, DC, on May 16, 2025. (Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)

Brooke Rollins: Agricultural security is national security

Workers cannot be replaced before the federal hiring frost on October 15 is lifted.

This will oblige certain research projects to interrupt, said Henderson, citing a project to develop a vaccine against a fatal toxin which occurs in insufficient beef.

“We do not have the talent now to progress on these research projects. This makes us go back by years, if not decades,” he told Reuters.

An agronomist with farmers is in a large agricultural area. (Getty Images)

The agency is down approximately 1,200 workers thanks to efforts to reduce workforce this year.

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Fox News Digital contacted the USDA to comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.