Hearts Grown Fonder

If February is the month for affairs of the heart, February 2025 was a blowout. In the span of 28 short days, the grape and wine industry went on a heartrending rollercoaster ride with our grape-research colleagues at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS). At least seven of them, all within their three-year probationary period, were suddenly and unceremoniously fired—many on Valentine’s Day, no less. Days later, they were reinstated.

It all happened so quickly, it was hard to fully fathom. A first-ever precision viticulture engineer. A growing team of grape smoke exposure chemists. A plant pathologist studying viral grapevine diseases. An entomologist working on vine mealybug. A geneticist identifying traits to speed grape breeding. Another geneticist leading a century-old grape table and raisin grape breeding program. Some are early-career scientists launching a bright future in grape. Others represent whole programs of research that industry members had worked with USDA administrators and allied Congressmen to secure and support. All disappeared in the blink of an eye. Then, “presto, change-o,” as trade reporter Pam Strayer wrote in Wine Business Monthly, they were back.

But uncertainty persists. Federal grant programs, including those administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, paused their requests for applications in late January. By early February, they had halted proposal reviews that were already in progress, as for NIFA’s Specialty Crop Research Initiative. These funding sources remain frozen with no word on whether or when they may be restored. Thus, newer grape research, including some high-priority NGRA-initiated projects, remain in limbo. (Note that this issue impacts all grape scientists, including at land-grant universities.)

It’s too soon to know where things go from here. After all, federal budget negotiations are ongoing and the continuing resolution that currently funds the government expires on March 14. In the meantime, we’re relieved to have our ARS scientists back at work. And we’re duly reminded how much we value them and the research they—and their counterparts in academia—do to sustain and advance our industry. Turns out, absence truly does make the heart grow fonder.

Donnell Brown
President