Earlier this week, Juan Vassallo at Investigate Midwest reported that the number of consumer food safety complaints to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) grew 40% between 2024 and 2025.1 Vassallo’s article suggested a connection between this jump in consumer complaints and DOGE-related staffing cuts at the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). “Staffing cuts,” wrote Vassallo, “raise questions about the agency’s capacity to manage a growing volume of complaints and whether the increase in complaints is connected to reduced oversight.” In its defense, USDA leadership has claimed that total cuts at FSIS have been low relative to other federal agencies, at 8% overall, and would not harm field operations.
Taking a Look at the Data
Would publicly available data show whether staffing cuts were as damaging to public health security as other recent reporting has suggested? Our team had looked at the impact of staffing cuts at federal land management and conservation agencies. From those studies we learned USDA had removed newer front line, public facing land management and conservation workers at around three times the rate of long-term employees. The data also pointed to widespread losses of front line staff in over one third of counties. We wondered whether our methodology for tracking the local impact of federal cuts, could provide deeper insight into the food safety workforce, as well.
Figure 1: County Level View of APHIS and FSIS Staffing Loss (2025)
Impact on the Front Lines of Public Health
Using publicly available data from the US Office of Personnel Management, our analysis determined that federal staffing loss among the front-line food safety workforce was widespread, with a net decline in every state and over one third of counties. Also notable was a concentration of staffing losses among the southern border states, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, which are on the last line of defense against the northward expansion of New World screwworm.
In 2024, APHIS and FSIS employed 9,600 people in six front-line positions: animal health technician, biological science technician, consumer safety, consumer safety inspection, food inspection, and veterinary medical science (including trainees). Total staff fell to 8,600 in 2025, a drop of 10%. During that same time period, the number of counties in which these staff were stationed fell from 1,683 to 1,521, a total loss of front-line food safety staff in 162 counties. An additional 506 counties experienced partial staffing loss. In total, staffing was down or flat in a 85% of counties.
Figure 2: County Level View of Veterinary Medical Science Staffing Loss (2025)
The Critical Role of Veterinarians
We also narrowed our analysis to a single profession with critical responsibility for public health, veterinarians. Both APHIS and FSIS employ frontline veterinarians who ensure that U.S. farm animals are safe from diseases and that the protein derived from them is processed and handled in ways that minimize risks to consumers and their families. Staff with frontline responsibilities, directly observing meat processing operations, conducting hands-on inspection of carcasses, and pursuing field investigations of animal disease outbreaks, departed the agency at higher rates than either agency’s average. Our analysis found that in 2025 USDA frontline veterinary staffing fell by 14%, a loss of 199 staff nationwide. At the local level, some losses were even greater. USDA began the year with veterinary staff in 709 counties, but ended 2025 with staff in only 570 counties losing 100% of veterinary staff in 139 counties.
What’s Next?
Our analysis still leaves two unanswered questions: Do staffing cuts drive an increase in consumer complaints? Is there a correlation between an increase in complaints and an increased risk to public health? In the coming weeks, our team will begin looking into both of those questions.
