USDA uses keyword searches including "diversity" and "climate modeling" to target grants for cancellation

Internal USDA documents obtained by Reuters showed that staff at the Department of Agriculture had been directed to search grant databases for keyword terms — including "diversity," "equity," "climate modeling," "environmental justice," and "gender" — to identify grants for potential cancellation. The keyword-screening approach bypassed the peer-review process that normally governs grant decisions and substituted ideological filtering for scientific evaluation. Affected grants included research on sustainable agriculture, rural food security, soil carbon sequestration, and crop adaptation to changing temperatures. Scientists whose multi-year grants were flagged by keyword had no opportunity to respond before their funding was frozen pending review. The revelation exposed how a mechanized, automated approach to ideological screening could operate across an entire federal grant portfolio, touching thousands of awards across dozens of fields without any case-by-case scientific judgment.