As the Administration continues its push to reduce the government workforce, hop growers are feeling the impact.
The Washington Hop Commission says more than $1.5 million was spent on a lab at Washington State University, but now, their researchers no longer work there.
“So that’s establishing a lab, all the instruments that go in the lab, a six-acre research plot, as well as a hop yard, as well as a hop picker, and a kiln facility. There’s a lot of infrastructure that went into place, which was meant to serve him his entire career and to help us with this research. Unfortunately, as of now, that laboratory is empty, and all of his research work is indefinite. We don’t know what’s going to happen next,” said Maggie Elliott.
That facility was established as a hop stress physiology lab. Elliott says the Washington Hop Commission along with other groups invested around $300,000 to launch the program.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the availability of over $275 million in grant funding in FY2026 for the specialty crop industry in the United States through three USDA programs.
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