Perry Chiaramonte
FoxNews.com
1/17/2014
The Environmental Protection Agency has told farmers and ranchers it is sorry for handing private information about them over to environmental groups, but agriculture advocates who fear attacks from eco-terrorists say it’s like closing the barn door after the horses escaped.
In response to Freedom of Information Requests, the federal agency released information on up to 100,000 agriculture industry workers, including their home address and phone numbers, GPS coordinates and even personal medical histories. The agency later acknowledged much of the information should never have been provided, and even asked the recipients to give it back.
“If someone is setting out to create mischief at these locations, basically the government gave them a road map,” Mace Thornton, spokesman for the American Farm Bureau Federation, which is participating in a joint lawsuit against the EPA, told FoxNews.com. “It is very clearly an unjustified intrusion into citizens’ private lives by the government. And it is a betrayal of trust.”…
…Large farms and cattle processing facilities have been targeted in the past by militant groups who believe they are cruel to animals and cause pollution. Two years ago, the Animal Liberation Front claimed credit for a fire that caused $2 million in damage to a farm in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The group issued a statement afterward ending with the words, “until next time.” No arrests have been made…
The complete article is at FoxNews.com
Related: Emails Show Extensive Collaboration Between EPA, Environmentalist Orgs
The Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged Tuesday that it released personal information on potentially thousands of farmers and ranchers to environmental groups, following concerns from congressional Republicans and agriculture groups that the release could endanger their safety…
