Posted August 20, 2014
The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released farmers’ and ranchers’ personal
data to the public violating basic principles of federal law, according to an
article on Ohio’s Country Ag Journal available here.
Sierra Sun Times also published the article here.
In 2013, the EPA publicly released a massive database of
personal information about livestock and poultry farmers and ranchers in 29
states. The information was distributed to three environmental groups that had
filed requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The database
included the names of farmers, ranchers and possibly other family members, home
addresses, GPS coordinates, telephone numbers, and emails.
Last July, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) was joined
by the National Pork Producers Council and filed the lawsuit to stop the EPA
from responding to new FOIA requests seeking information about farmers and
ranchers in six additional states.
“The EPA is displaying a callous disregard for basic privacy
rights,” Bob Stallman, AFBF President, said. “EPA believes that if information
about you can be found somewhere on the Internet, or if you own a closely held
family corporation, you have no interest in protecting your personal
information. All citizens should be worried about that, not just farmers and
ranchers.”
EPA has agreed not to release any further information
pending the court’s decision in this lawsuit. AFBF’s latest filing asks the
court for a permanent order preventing future disclosures of farmers’ and
ranchers’ personal information in response to similar requests.
For more information, a copy of the filing is available here.
