Big Brother is watching the farm and his name is EPA

In this age of free-flowing information, when most anything can be found in cyberspace, it’s a little disconcerting that government knows the most intimate details of your family, finances and business. It’s downright alarming when they release that information to those who might do you harm. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released personal information about thousands of livestock and poultry farmers and ranchers in 20 states in response to Freedom of Information Act requests from three environmental organizations. The massive data release included home phone numbers, home emails, employee contact information, home addresses, GPS coordinates and, in some cases, personal notes about the families, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). When agriculture groups protested, EPA redacted some of the information and asked the groups to return the original information. But the horse was out of the barn. Now EPA intends to release more personal information on farmers in a number of states. AFBF and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) say enough is enough. They are seeking an immediate court order stopping EPA until a court can clarify EPA’s obligation to keep personal information about private citizens private...more