USDA sued for purging climate-related information from its websites

A lawsuit filed by the environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University claims the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s wiping of critical climate resources from its website is a violation of rules around government actions and information access.

The plaintiffs on the complaint filed in the Southern District of New York include the Environmental Working Group, Natural Resources Defense Council and Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, who seek a court order requiring the USDA to restore access to the webpages.

During Donald Trump’s first term as president, Peter Lehner, managing attorney for Earthjustice, said the organization brought around 200 lawsuits against the administration and won about 85% of those.

“A new administration can come in, and of course, they’re entitled to make some policy changes, but they have to follow the law in so doing,” Lehner said. “Very often in the first Trump administration, they were rushing to try to do things, or they did things really heedlessly.”

Lehner said that public input and science behind laws are still as clear as they were during that first Trump term.

“You have to have public input, you have to follow the science, and when they didn’t, we were able to litigate and win,” he said. “I think we’ll be looking at the same in this administration.”

Contributed / Earthjustice

He’s confident in the judges that preside over the cases as well, even though current orders by federal judges are not being followed by the Trump administration to unfreeze federal funding.

“Let’s just say I think the rule of law requires them to follow those court orders, and my understanding so far is they’ve been trying to invent legal reasons why their apparent failure to follow a court order has some legal basis,” Lehner said. “Those will get exhausted and they won’t want to be in overt denial or opposition or failing to follow a direct court order.”

Lehner said the lawsuit filed regarding the removal of climate-related webpages should be more cut-and-dry than the federal funding freeze.

“This particular lawsuit asks for a court order that USDA restore these websites and not purge any more websites of climate change related information, and that should be an order that would be, frankly, pretty straightforward for a court, for an agency, to follow, and we will be able to monitor that in some extent,” Lehner said. “Because we identified many, many webpages that have been taken down, and we’ll be able to go and see if those pages are back up.”

According to the lawsuit, on Jan. 30, 2025, USDA Director of Digital Communications Peter Rhee sent an email ordering USDA staff to “identify and archive or unpublish any landing pages focused on climate change” by “no later than close of business” on the following day.

“It was very shortly after that that the website purges began, and we found out about it very quickly,” Lehner said. “We then really thought about it. This is what lawyers do, is try to figure out, okay, is this action legal? And we believe it is unlawful under the Freedom of Information Act, Paperwork Reduction Act and Administrative Procedure Act.”

According to the lawsuit, among the resources removed from USDA websites were all information related to climate-smart agriculture, federal loans, conservation programs and climate adaptation strategies. The USDA also deleted entire sections on climate from the U.S. Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service sites, including information that helps farmers access billions of dollars for conservation projects, according to the lawsuit. USDA also disabled interactive tools like the U.S. Forest Service’s “Climate Risk Viewer” and removed technical guidance on reducing emissions and boosting resilience to extreme weather.

Lehner said the important part of the lawsuit he wants the public to understand is that farmers are caught in the middle of a “political game.”

“The (Trump) administration wants to somehow erase any words of climate change, as if they’re scoring political points, but farmers are facing the reality of climate change extremes and changing weather and changing the words doesn’t change that,” Lehner said. “The farmers are really being caught in the middle, as are researchers and advocates.”

He added that many farmers impacted by the removal of climate-related information are not willing to speak publicly or join the lawsuit because of the fear of retribution from the administration.

Wes Gillingham, a farmer and NOFA-NY board president, is not one of them. He runs a 150-family CSA with his wife, and breeds Icelandic sheep and Scottish Highland cattle. Gillingham said the impact of climate change on his farm includes severe flooding that devastated his vegetable business.

Contributed / Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York

He said there’s two big reasons NOFA-NY got involved in the lawsuit.

“One is that we saw there was really good information taken down from websites — things like where to go to get disaster help when you have a flooding event, because farmers do not get FEMA funds, because they have access to other things through USDA,” he said. “It’s vital for farmers to have information about climate change, and on where to get disaster help.”

Gillingham said a few days before the purge happened, he was on a USDA climate page, appreciating how clear the science was provided.

“Just some really classic scientific theory on why we have extreme weather, and to really help farmers, or anybody for that matter, understand what we’re facing,” he said. “It helps to have information, to adjust to it.”

The second reason is to address what’s being done by the Trump administration is illegal.

“We need to have everybody challenge what he’s doing that is illegal,” Gillingham said. “If you are an affected farmer, if you’re an affected healthcare worker, or whatever it is, we need to challenge what is a blatant example of censorship.”

I am a general assignment agricultural reporter who covers everything from people and food to land, using multiple elements of media. I prioritize stories that amplify the power of people. 

As an ag reporter, my coverage has included the opioid crisis, climate change, herding dogs, trade wars, snow-collapsed barns, COVID-19 pandemic, immigrant farmers, tree-range chickens, farmland transition, milking robots, world record pumpkins, cannabis pasteurization, cranberry country and horseradish kings.

I report out of northeast Rochester, Minnesota, where I live with my wife, Kara, our fiercely sweet daughter, Rooney, and polite cat, Zena. Email me at nfish@Agweek.com