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Receipt of Agriculture Subsidies Prompts Public Disclosure of Farm Data

By E.L. Lipman

In an interesting opinion issued yesterday, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed a lower court ruling which shielded from public disclosure detailed information on the agricultural practices, acreage, soil, crops, livestock, and geographical location of farms owned by persons receiving agricultural subsidies from the Farm Service Agency (?FSA?). FSA promotes ?a stable and abundant American food supply ? in part, by offering subsidies and other financial assistance to farms.?

Multi Ag Media LLC, a commercial vendor of agricultural data, sought disclosure of database information maintain by the FSA under the Freedom of Information Act; a request that the agency denied on the grounds that disclosure ?would compromise farmers? privacy interests and that these files are properly withheld under FOIA Exemption 6.?

While acknowledging that the privacy interests of the participating farmers that would be compromised by disclosure of the files ?is greater than de minimis,? the panel reasoned that because ?FSA uses this information in making subsidy and benefit determinations? disclosure was warranted because the public had a greater interest ?in being able to look at the information the agency had before it when making these determinations so that the public can monitor whether the agency is correctly doing its job.?

The panel?s complete analysis, and its balancing of the competing interests, is accessible here.

Full post as published by Within the Scope on February 16, 2008 (boomark / email).