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USDA to restore climate-focused webpages amid lawsuit

The USDA is expected to bring back climate-focused webpages after some farm and environmental groups recently filed a lawsuit.

Rebecca Riley, managing director of food and agriculture with the Natural Resources Defense Council, says the USDA had purged web information on climate-smart farming, accessing federal loans, forest conservation, and rural clean energy projects.

“USDA provides billions of dollars in financial and technical assistance to farmers, and also invests billions of dollars in rural infrastructure,” she said. “And a lot of the information about those programs was taken down.”

In response to the initial purging of climate-related webpages, a lawsuit was filed by Earthjustice and the Knight First Amendment Institute on behalf of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Environmental Working Group.

Riley tells Brownfield NRDC is pleased the information will be restored.

“This is great news for farmers because all of those webpages should be restored in the next two weeks,” she said. “That means information about how to access programs related to climate change, to fund equipment purchases, and to fund new practices.”

In a letter filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the USDA said it plans to reverse course and, “restore the climate change-related web content that was removed post-inauguration.”

INTERVIEW: NRDC’s Rebecca Riley