ASA opposes USDA plan likely to undermine economic research service (ERS) work [repost]

The American Statistical Association (ASA) is actively opposing a recent United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposal to realign and relocate the Economic Research Service (ERS). The ASA’s concern is that moving ERS—a federal statistical agency and an internationally respected agricultural economics research institution—would undermine its work and product quality, thereby also affecting evidence-based policymaking in the USDA and food and agriculture more generally.