US farmers move forward with lawsuit after climate change data blackout

A group of farmers and environmental nonprofits are suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), accusing the agency of deleting climate change -related data from its website and saying the move undermines not only research but also agricultural initiatives.

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

According to the lawsuit, the department’s actions have harmed farmers who use the data to plan “farm decisions” and access financing, hindered the work of climate researchers and advocates, and “deprived the public” of “vital information.” The USDA sites include the Forest Service, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“USDA should be working to protect our food system from drought, wildfires and extreme weather, not denying the public access to critical resources,” said Jeffrey Stein, an attorney for Earthjustice, the legal group that filed the lawsuit. The USDA referred questions from The Washington Post to the Justice Department, which declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Examples cited in the action

Examples cited in the lawsuit include the Farm Service Agency, which took down a website that informed farmers how to apply for smart farming and farm loan programs, and the Forest Service, which removed an interactive map that allowed users to see where federal agencies had conducted climate change vulnerability assessments and learn more about them.

Earthjustice said the data removal is “part of a trend” under the Trump administration, which has worked to dismantle climate protections and roll back federal policies aimed at combating and measuring climate change.

The lawsuit also says the order to remove these materials came at a time when farmers were already reeling from the Trump administration’s freeze on previously promised USDA funding for programs designed to promote clean energy and sustainable agriculture, which has left many farmers struggling to make payments they never expected to make. Under the Trump administration, thousands of federal employees have been laid off across the country, including at the USDA.

“It’s ridiculous to remove climate change information from websites , freeze funding, and lay off USDA workers who are helping protect communities,” said Wes Gillingham, board chairman of NOFA-NY, which represents farmers, gardeners, and consumers who advocate for organic and sustainable food and agriculture.

24 hours to “clean” climate data

According to the lawsuit, USDA’s director of digital communications, Peter Rhee, told employees in a Jan. 30 email that they had about 24 hours to “identify and archive or unpublish any pages focused on climate change.” The employees were instructed to rank other sites based on the number of mentions of climate change and to come up with a “recommendation for how the content should be handled.”

USDA officials “then moved quickly to remove pages focused on climate change from department websites ,” the lawsuit claims, creating confusion and chaos as resources for farmers and the public suddenly became inaccessible, “without any public notice or explanation.”

In recent weeks, several US government agencies have removed information from their websites related to topics deemed objectionable by President Donald Trump's administration, including references to diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as references to climate change and efforts to combat it.

Without prior notice

The lawsuit alleged that by deleting the materials so quickly and without warning, the USDA violated the Paperwork Reduction Act, which requires agencies to provide advance notice when they delete “significant information dissemination products,” and the Freedom of Information Act. The groups also sued under the Administrative Procedures Act, which allows individuals to seek judicial review of certain harmful agency actions.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the USDA's actions unlawful and order the department to restore the deleted websites and cease complying with the Jan. 30 directive.

Trump has long rejected climate science. During his first term, he aggressively pursued policies aimed at protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Trump has called climate change “an expensive hoax” and in 2016 said he “doesn’t really believe in human-caused climate change.”

Exclusive PUBLIC/The Washington Post