By Leah Douglas

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan to close its flagship laboratory near Washington, D.C., could undermine research on pests, blight and crop genetics crucial to American farms, according to lawmakers, a farm group, and staff of the facility.

The USDA has already lost thousands of research staff to President Donald Trump’s effort to shrink the federal government, even as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said farm research is a pillar of national security.

Rollins said in July that the USDA will close the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, which occupies nearly 7,000 acres in the Maryland suburbs outside Washington, as part of an agency reorganization effort that will also move roughly half of its Washington-area staff to hubs in

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