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. 

A copy of the complaint in Zanoni v. Department of Agriculture, U. S. District 
Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Action No. 08-939 (EGS), is attached.