Discussion

rayiner: If we have a $7 trillion national government, we should spread out the jobs instead of concentrating them in DC. It’s becoming The Capitol from Hunger Games. There’s no reason USDA of all agencies should have thousands of employees in DC.

1234letshaveatw: So true, dispersing agencies would also help with housing availability and cost of living concerns. No question that the USDA should be in someplace like Iowa or Nebraska

apothegm: Prepare for a major drop in what was already spread-too-thin enforcement of what are fairly low quality and safety standards relative to the rest of the developed world.

mothballed: With poor enforcement, it would be nice if at least I could buy my meat directly from the farmer I know where at least I can see the facilities for myself, but they have made that illegal -- no you must buy it through one of the poorly enforced USDA approved slaughterhouses that I have no personal connection to.

ne0flex: Your comment reminded me of this book called, "everything I want to do is illegal" [1] written by a farmer that talks about his annoyances with the US food system and how regulations favor corporate farming.[1] https://tinyurl.com/hb95amyw

JumpCrisscross: > Prepare for a major drop in what was already spread-too-thin enforcementGenuine question: do we have historical analogs or studies for the costs and benefits of concentrated versus decentralised regulation?

cucumber3732842: The last thing some legislators and lobbyists who've cooked up a law that will make their benefactors rich at the expense of some other random industry is to have the enforcement bureaucracy in charge of actually doing it pushing back because it's nonsensical.Imagine if the EPA was located in Detroit. I bet we wouldn't have 450k mandated warranties on heavy truck emissions components (which serves what purpose beyond front loading that cost into the purchase, the last thing you want if you want these cleaner newer trucks on the road).If the pencil pushers who sent steel production to elsewhere had their offices in Cleveland maybe we'd have less clean but more steel production domestically instead of offloading that tonnage of production to parts of the world where it's dirtier still, say nothing of the shipping to get it here (the last rebar I bought came from Oman).

JumpCrisscross: > bet we wouldn't have 450k mandated warranties on heavy truck emissions components (which serves what purpose beyond front loading that cost into the purchaseTo be fair, it also makes it incredibly difficult to import a truck made for any other market into America.

JumpCrisscross: > they have made that illegalWe have the Food Freedom Act in Wyoming [1]. It technically requires meat "for future delivery provided that the processing of the animals is done by the purchaser or by a Wyoming or federally licensed processing facility." But in my experience, ranchers are liberal with how they define me "processing" my meat. (In one case, he pointed out the bits of silver skin he hadn't trimmed. So I "processed" those off at home.)[1] https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2015/HB0056

kube-system: The small percentage of USDA employees that are in the DC area are mostly administering policy related things

JumpCrisscross: > If we have a $7 trillion national government, we should spread out the jobs instead of concentrating them in DCIf only we had like fifty sovereign governments spread out across our nation.

ninalanyon: When the federation was created was the concentration of power in the capital intended? Or was it supposed to be mostly a coordinating organ leaving the states to be much more independent?

JumpCrisscross: > was it supposed to be mostly a coordinating organ leaving the states to be much more independent?I guess my functional question is why agriculture requires federal regulation to the tune of the USDA. (And I'm asking this genuinely. As a not farmer.)

jalapenoj: A bureaucrat losing his job is always a good thing.

lithobraking: The data [1] says that the gov is fairly spread out. According to the OPM site, 7.4% of USDA employees work in the DC area. California has more USDA employees (10.3%) than DC.Including all agencies, _87%_ of all federal employees work outside DC. That seems fairly spread out to me. Additionally, the percentage of DC workers seems to be going down over time, at least according to their data going back to 2016.[1] https://data.opm.gov/explore-data/analytics/location

kube-system: $189 billion of USDA's $213 billion budget is the Food and Nutrition Service. They're administering SNAP, WIC, school lunch programs, etc.

muddi900: As other comments pointed out, the department is very much spread out. It can be confirmed via a simple google search.Why is such an egregious comment at the top?

Freedom2: Interesting. In my experience, the US still has one of highest food qualities in the world, especially when you take into account it's diversity and variety. Sure, some things get missed here and there, but it's also a lot easier to be safe and consistent if you aren't producing the types of food the US is.

mindslight: [delayed]