USDA can keep feedlot data secret, judge rules

Feedlots can be controversial; the unpleasant waste and smell can draw complaints, and they can be sources of water pollution downstream. Nevertheless, the Department of Agriculture is not required to make public the names and telephone numbers of feedlots, a federal judge ruled last week.

The lawsuit was brought by Mary Zanoni, a journalist, lawyer and farmer who is executive director of Farm for Life, a non-profit supporting small farms in New York state. She filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the National Premises Information Repository, a database with contact information for feedlots that are part of the National Animal Identification System. Zanoni was writing a series of articles about the NAIS.

Zanoni "expected the data to show that USDA registered many livestock producers in the system without their knowledge or against their objections, according to court documents," writes Mateusz Perkowski for Capital Press Agriculture News. She "wanted to know the number of livestock producers who had asked to be removed from the system and how many of them were actually removed." (Read more of the story; read the decision)