02/25/2025

Farmers Sue USDA After the Agency Deletes Climate Change Data

The suit alleges the data's removal hinders how farmers conduct their businesses

A group of farmers and environmental nonprofits sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), accusing the agency of scrubbing data relating to climate change from its website and saying the move would hinder research and hurt farming initiatives.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY) and two environmental nonprofits, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group, accused the USDA of deleting “climate-related policies, guides, datasets and resources from its websites” in violation of laws on government transparency and agency action.

The suit said the agency’s actions hurt farmers who used the data to plan “agricultural decisions” and access funding, made it more difficult for climate researchers and advocates to do their jobs and “deprived the public” of “vital information.” USDA websites include the Forest Service, Food Safety and Inspection Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.