725 #ClimateEmergency #USfarmers #USDA
Denyibg the Climate doesn't make it disappear.
"Farmers depend on climate data. They’re suing the USDA for deleting it."
by Frida Garza for Grist [Feb 28, 2025] {Audio available]
https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/farmers-usda-climate-data-lawsuit-website-purge/
Quotes:
"Growing food is a precarious business, and losing access to key information makes it worse."
"In late January, the director of digital communications at the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA} sent an email to staff instructing them to remove agency web pages related to climate change by the end of the following day."
"The result is that an unknown number of web pages — including some that contained information about federal loans and other forms of assistance for farmers and some that showcased interactive climate data — have been taken down"
“Farmers are on the front lines of climate change,” said Jeff Stein, an associate attorney with the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice, who is representing the plaintiffs. “Purging climate change web pages doesn’t make climate change go away. It just makes it harder for farmers to adapt.”
"One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, or NOFA-NY, a group that helps educate and certify producers in organic farming practices."
“All of a sudden, it’s like anything marked with climate is starting to disappear,” said Wes Gillingham, [NOFA-NY]. According to the complaint, the Farm Service Agency and Farmers.gov, both part of the USDA, removed information about how farmers could access federal loans and technical assistance to start adopting practices that help reduce emissions and sequester carbon, known as climate-smart agriculture."
"The speed with which websites were taken down encouraged NOFA-NY to move quickly when it came to filing a lawsuit. “We want to prevent good science and information that farmers need from disappearing, especially this time of year,"
He emphasized that access to scientific information about drought, extreme weather, and other climate impacts is essential to farmers’ ability to stay in business. “Farmers are constantly trying to improve their situation. They’re under immense economic pressure,” he said. ”
"When tools like this go offline, they disrupt farmers’ ability to protect their lands and their livelihoods. In New York, where Gillingham’s group is located, the majority of farms are small: under 200 acres. “The margin of error to be successful, it’s pretty slim already,” said Gillingham."
"In its complaint, filed Monday, Earthjustice referred to emails sent on January 30 by Rhee, the director of digital communications at USDA, instructing staff to remove web pages. These emails were obtained by multiple news outlets last month.
To date, neither Rhee nor the Department of Agriculture has publicly acknowledged the emails or the removal of climate-related web pages. “That’s problematic for a number of reasons, including that we don’t know the full scope of the purge,” said Stein."
"Larry Moore, a spokesperson for the USDA, said the agency is working with the Department of Justice, or DOJ, on court filings, and directed inquiries to the DOJ. The DOJ did not respond..."
"In addition to NOFA-NY, the other plaintiffs in the complaint are the National Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group, an activist group focused on toxic pollution."
"A hearing date is still pending. Rylander argued it’s likely that more complaints will be filed over the removal of climate information from other federal agency websites, like the Environmental Protection Agency."
"Gillingham referred to these moves as part of “an indiscriminate political agenda scrubbing climate” from any government website. “We can’t sit by and just wait to see what happens. You know, they should not be doing what they’re doing. So it has to stop. And the courts are the only option right now.”
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