02/21/06 USDA may release payment database

Farm and Ranch February 21, 2006 The USDA has as directed by Congress put together a database of all the farmers currently receiving payments from the federal government. The question is what happens to it next. Will farmers' names and the amounts they received be released to the public? Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says that decision has not yet been made. But the Secretary does say; Johanns: "I think if you receive payments from the government it is public information. I don't think I am blazing dramatically new legal ground here. Not at all. It is just the nature of what we do here and my goal would be to offer my direction that this information is really public information." Johanns says he is liable to get a lot of angry mail about that but he is also consulting his legal advisors with what to do with the database. The Environmental Working Group headed up by Ken Cook has been publishing detailed farm payment data for several years but apparently Cook's database does not include individual payment recipients who are part of co-ops. The Environmental Working Group's publication of payment information helped fuel opposition to farm programs in their current form and provided ammunition to supporters of tighter payment limits. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.