USDA orders scientists to remove climate change language from published reports and agency communications

Internal USDA communications obtained by journalists showed that agency scientists had been directed to remove references to climate change, climate resilience, and related terminology from published reports, grant summaries, and official agency communications. Scientists at USDA's Economic Research Service and Agricultural Research Service described being instructed to substitute neutral language for climate-related terms or to remove entire passages from documents that had been through normal scientific review. The directive represented a form of after-the-fact censorship of completed scientific work, requiring researchers to retroactively change the language in finished research to align with the administration's policy of avoiding climate language in federal communications. Agricultural scientists warned that removing climate terminology from reports about crop yields, drought patterns, and soil health reduced the usefulness of the research to the farmers the agency was supposed to serve.