Organic farmers and environmental groups sued the Agriculture Department on Monday over its scrubbing of references to climate change from its website.
The department had ordered staff to take down pages focused on climate change on Jan. 30, according to the suit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Within hours, it said, information started disappearing.
That included websites containing data sets, interactive tools and funding information that farmers and researchers relied on for planning and adaptation projects, according to the lawsuit.
At the same time, the department also froze funding that had been promised to businesses and nonprofits through conservation and climate programs. The purge then “removed critical information about these programs from the public record, denying farmers access to resources they need to advocate for funds they are owed,” it said.
The Agriculture Department referred questions about the lawsuit to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suit was filed by lawyers from Earthjustice, based in San Francisco, and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, on behalf of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, based in Binghamton; the Natural Resources Defense Council, based in New York; and the Environmental Working Group, based in Washington. The latter two groups relied on the department website for their research and advocacy, the lawsuit said.
Peter Lehner, a lawyer for Earthjustice, said the pages being purged were crucial for farmers facing risks linked to climate change, including heat waves, droughts, floods, extreme weather and wildfires. The websites had contained information about how to mitigate dangers and adopt new agricultural techniques and strategies. Long-term weather data and trends are valuable in the agriculture industry for planning, research and business strategy.
“You can purge a website of the words climate change, but that doesn’t mean climate change goes away,” Mr. Lehner said.
The sites under the department’s umbrella include those of the Forest Service, which is responsible for stewardship of forests and grasslands; the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which helps landowners implement conservation practices; and those of other divisions focused on farms and ranches, disaster recovery and rural development.
The directive to delete the pages came by email from Peter Rhee, the department’s director of digital communications, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs allege the actions violated three federal laws and were “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.” They asked the court to compel the agency to restore the pages and to block it from deleting any others.
Wes Gillingham, president of the board of Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, said that farmers were just heading into planning for the summer growing season. He said taking information down because of a “political agenda about climate change” was senseless.
He has been farming in Livingston Manor, N.Y., in the Catskill Mountains, for 30 years, and now raises Icelandic sheep there. He had previously grown vegetables for a community-supported agriculture program, but stopped about 20 years ago when his operation was wiped out by three massive floods in a five-year period.
Mr. Gillingham said his organization is the largest organic certifier in New York State, which is a major hub for small farms. They often send farmers to the Agriculture Department website for information on things like conservation programs and which agricultural practices qualify for grants and loans. They also direct people to resources like equipment lending.
“Right now, because of climate change and because of what farmers are facing in terms of extreme weather events, we need every piece of available information we can get,” he said. “We don’t have access to that, we’re not going to make it.”
