USDA Lifts Clampdown On Its Science Division
[ https://www.buzzfeed.com/dinograndoni/t ... .prmMWEk2o ]
On Tuesday evening a top USDA official told scientists the order “is hereby rescinded.”
Jan. 25, 2017, at 2:57 a.m. Dino Grandoni BuzzFeed News Reporter
The US Department of Agriculture rescinded an order [ https://www.buzzfeed.com/dinograndoni/t ... .vnx82gN14 ] stopping scientists and other employees at its main research division from publishing documents meant to explain science to the public.
In an email sent to scientists on Tuesday evening and obtained by BuzzFeed News, Chavonda Jacobs-Young, administrator of the department’s science arm, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), told researchers the original order should not have been issued and “is hereby rescinded.”
Earlier that day, the department fought off public backlash after ARS issued the notice to workers.
While scientists were allowed to grant department-approved media interviews, publish academic articles, and present work at conferences under that order, they were banned from using a wide array of media — including “news releases, photos, fact sheets, news feeds, and social media content” — to communicate with the public.
After BuzzFeed News wrote a story on Tuesday morning [ https://www.buzzfeed.com/dinograndoni/t ... .wsalkvJaG ] about that internal email, the Agriculture Department received a chorus of criticism from the scientific community for what many in it suggested was the suppression of science and a potential violation of its scientific integrity policy by USDA.
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Instead of adhering to the previous blanket ban on publishing so-called public-facing documents, ARS will follow USDA-wide guidance that instructs scientists to get approval from top officials before answering questions “related to legislation, budgets, policy issues and regulation,” according to Jacobs-Young’s email.