Agricultural Research Service ARS

Science has been part of the Agriculture Department since its creation in 1862, when Congress charged it with acquiring and spreading useful information on agriculture. Secretary Ezra Taft Benson consolidated the department's scattered research bureaus into the Agricultural Research Service on November 2, 1953. Its flagship campus, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, dates to 1910.

ARS employs about two thousand scientists at roughly ninety locations working on crop breeding, animal health, food safety, nutrition, water, and soil. Its predecessor labs developed the method for mass-producing penicillin during World War II at a laboratory in Peoria, Illinois, along with frozen orange juice concentrate and wrinkle-resistant cotton. It belongs to USDA's research mission area alongside the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which funds research at land-grant universities, the Economic Research Service, and the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Studies by economists have found high returns on public agricultural research, yet U.S. public funding has fallen in real terms while China's has grown. The 2019 relocation of the Economic Research Service and NIFA to Kansas City led many staff to leave, and in 2025 USDA announced a plan to move much of its Washington workforce to five regional hubs and to close or consolidate some facilities, including parts of the Beltsville campus. Supporters said the plan would bring staff closer to farmers, while critics warned of lost expertise.