The US Department of Agriculture’s decision to purge information about climate change from its websites harms organic farmers and threatens their livelihoods, a new lawsuit alleges.
Since President Donald Trump stepped into office, the USDA has removed “scores of vitally important webpages” that mention climate change, the suit says. The administration has been racing to destroy public resources that address climate change and civil rights, sparking legal battles to bring those webpages back.
Trump has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax” and has abandoned US efforts to limit the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels that are causing climate change. There is overwhelming scientific consensus that pollution from fossil fuels are raising global average temperatures and driving more extreme weather.
Plaintiffs in the suit, filed on behalf of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY) and two environmental groups, say they’ve already seen those effects on their farms. They previously relied on information on USDA websites to prepare for those consequences, helping them make decisions about planting crops and managing their land.
“We have been reacting to extreme weather and making choices to protect our businesses and our food system for years. Climate change is not a hoax. Farmers, fisherman, and foresters know from experience, that we need every piece of science and intergenerational knowledge to adjust to this new reality,” Wes Gillingham, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY) board president, said in a press release.
An online tool called the “Climate Risk Viewer,” for example, used to show the impacts of climate change on rivers and water sheds, and how that might affect future water supplies. It vanished along with other webpages shortly after USDA Director of Digital Communications Peter Rhee sent an email to staff on January on 30th directing them to “identify and archive or unpublish any landing pages focused on climate change,” according to the lawsuit.
The administration also removed information about how to access funding for “climate-smart farming,” including a webpage for a loan program that supports “sustainable agricultural practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions … and enhance the resilience of farming operations to climate change.” NOFA-NY used those federal webpages to help farmers find funding and share advice through its free “farmer helpline.“
Taking down policy information also makes it harder for farmers to hold the Trump administration accountable for distributing funds they’d been promised. The administration’s funding freeze, and Trump’s threat to claw back Biden-era climate funding, have faced separate legal challenges. NOFA-NY’s new lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration has violated court orders by stopping payments to farmers under USDA conservation and ‘climate-smart agriculture’ programs.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Working Group are also plaintiffs in the suit. They say they relied on the previously publicly available information for their research and advocacy.
The USDA’s removal of all these resources violate three federal laws, the complaint alleges. That includes the the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that gives the public the right to access key records from any federal agency, the Paperwork Reduction Act that stipulates adequate notice before changing access to information, and the Administrative Procedure Act that governs the way federal agencies develop regulations.
The USDA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge, and the Department of Justice declined to comment.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration brought some federal webpages back online to comply with a court order after Doctors for America (DFA), which represents physicians and medical students, similarly filed suit over health data taken off government websites.
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