Legislation in Congress would prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from making public the private information of farmers and ranchers.

Representatives Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) introduced the Farmer Identity Protection Act, which is intended to keep the EPA from repeating a 2013 action, when it disclosed information it had collected from agricultural producers.

“This legislation would prevent that from happening, making sure that sensitive information, private, personal information is not disclosed,” Crawford said, in a story published by Drovers CattleNetwork , “We need to be diligent from a national security perspective that we’re protecting the food supply, the food chain and also protecting producers.

“In 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency twice violated the privacy rights of producers by releasing the personal information of livestock and poultry producers to various environmental activist groups. Not only did these unprecedented actions violate individual privacy rights, they represent a possible biosecurity threat to our nation’s food supply.”

In 2012 the EPA proposed a rule under the Clean Water Act that would have led to the agency’s gathering private information from livestock producers. That information would have been available to the public on the EPA’s website. The EPA withdrew the proposal after lawmakers, two federal agencies and agricultural organizations questioned the proposed rule, but still made information it had already collected available to individuals and groups filing Freedom of Information Act requests. The EPA obtained the information through state environmental quality agencies but said it did not review the data to determine if any of the information was confidential business or personal information protected by law.

The EPA’s information leak included names, addresses, phone numbers and GPS coordinates of more than 80,000 agricultural producers in 30 states, Crawford said. “An overwhelming majority of the released farm information pertains to families, who may now face threats to their homes and businesses,” he said.

Eight agricultural groups sent a letter to Congress voicing their support for the bill. They included the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Pork Producers Council, Dairylea Cooperative Inc., National Turkey Federation, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, St. Albans Cooperative Creamer Inc., National Chicken Council and Upstate Niagara Cooperative Inc.

Environmental groups oppose the legislation. Tarah Heinzen, an attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project, told Roll Call , “While industry describes this case as a fight to protect ‘personal information’ from the prying eyes of environmentalists, the fact is that these highly polluting animal factories are corporate operations that are destroying waterways and communities wherever they operate.”

The bill, H.R. 4157 , was introduced March 6 and referred to the committees on Energy and Commerce, Transportation, Agriculture, and Science, Space and Technology.

By Steve Leer

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