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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Zanoni vs the USDA: Privacy Act
  • Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:46:32 -0600


http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:455HEUURm4QJ:nonais.org/+Zanoni+v.+United+States+Department+of+Agriculture&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=us&client=firefox-a


June 9, 2008
Zanoni vs the USDA: Privacy Act
News — walterj 12:11 am

Ag Journalist’S Suit Challenges Usda Secrecy; Usda Consents To Preserve
Records And Postpone “Privacy Act” Conversion

Constitutionality Of New Farm Bill In Question; Suit Under Freedom Of
Information Act Seeks Usda Livestock Premises “Phone Book” Database

Contact: Leonard G. Brown, III, Clymer & Musser, P.C., 717-299-7101

Washington, D.C. (June 2, 2008). A journalist covering family-farm issues is
taking the government to court to require it to keep faith with American
farmers by allowing access to its records. The USDA wants all livestock
owners — even those keeping animals as pets — to register their premises with
the government. Many livestock owners find this program onerous and
objectionable and are resisting. The USDA presently maintains that
participation in the program is “voluntary.” However, many livestock owners
report that, despite their refusal to register, they have been placed in the
program’s database without their knowledge or consent. Opening the lists to
public scrutiny will allow farmers and animal owners to ascertain what
information the government is keeping on them. The journalist is Mary-Louise
Zanoni, a freelance writer based in St. Lawrence County, New York. Ms. Zanoni
is seeking disclosure of the USDA’s National Premises Information Repository
(NPIR), a list of contact information for livestock premises. She also has
asked the USDA to reveal how many livestock owners have requested removal
from the NPIR; and how many such requests the USDA has honored. The NPIR is
being compiled as the first step in the USDA’s National Animal Identification
System (NAIS); the second step entails assigning a 15-digit unique ID number,
usually in the form of a microchip or distance-readable Radio Frequency ID
tag, to each animal. The third step planned by the USDA would entail the
livestock owner’s reporting, to a private database that will charge for each
report, all changes in ownership and significant changes in location or
status of an animal. NAIS is designed to streamline access to international
markets for multinational meatpackers and processors of animal products.

Ms. Zanoni is represented by Leonard G. Brown, III, of the Lancaster,
Pennsylvania law firm Clymer & Musser, P.C. In October 2007, Ms. Zanoni
submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the USDA’s Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for the NPIR livestock “phone
book” list. Initially, APHIS indicated that it planned to disclose some
17,000 pages of printed NPIR records to Ms. Zanoni; however, the agency later
denied her request on the basis of FOIA’s Exemption 6, which in some
circumstances permits an agency to withhold “personnel and medical files and
similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted
invasion of personal privacy.” Ms. Zanoni contends that the NPIR records,
mere basic contact information, do not fall under FOIA Exemption 6.

The new Farm Bill, the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, was
adopted on a Congressional override of President Bush’s veto last month. The
Act includes a provision, Section 1619, added by the conference committee at
the eleventh hour and with no public debate, intended to shield a large
amount of USDA information from public disclosure. Ms. Zanoni is challenging
this provision as not applicable to her FOIA request and as
unconstitutionally enacted. The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act was
plagued by significant procedural irregularities in its passage.

To preserve her right to the records and prevent the USDA from further
impeding any ultimate disclosure, Ms. Zanoni requested a temporary
restraining order. In response, the USDA has agreed that it will not alter or
destroy the records in question and has also agreed to publish a notice in
the Federal Register suspending the effective date (formerly June 9, 2008) of
its attempted conversion of the NPIR into a Privacy Act system of records.
Ms. Zanoni is challenging the USDA’s authority under the Privacy Act to
effect such a conversion.







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