American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Bob Stallman attested in a Minnesota federal court that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) public release of farmers’ and ranchers’ personal information was a violation of basic principles of federal law.
In early 2013, the EPA publicly released a massive database of personal information about tens of thousands of livestock and poultry farmers, ranchers and their families 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 sometimes other family members, home addresses, GPS coordinates, telephone numbers and emails, according to AFBF.
“The EPA is displaying a callous disregard for basic privacy rights,” Stallman said. “All citizens should be worried about that, not just farmers and ranchers.”
AFBF is seeking a permanent order to prevent future disclosures of farmers’ and ranchers’ personal information in response to FOIA requests. A copy of the filing may be found online at: http://bit.ly/1yRuDpQ.