Access to USDA data is raising significant privacy and competitive concerns, especially regarding farmers' financial and production information. Protecting this data is essential due to the potential consequences of financial insights that could be gleaned, such as predicting trends in productivity, farmland, and commodity prices. Inappropriate access to sensitive data could enable the creation of detailed profiles of farmers and ranchers, which could compromise their privacy and allow for strategic financial actions that undermine fair competition in agriculture.
"USDA has a lot of data that people should be very concerned about protecting for a lot of different reasons," said one current USDA employee who requested anonymity due to ongoing fear of retaliation. "Farmers' financial and production data should be protected at all costs, for privacy reasons and because of competition. If you got access to disaster payments, you would be able to layer a lot of data and arrive at a lot of valuable conclusions about productivity and U.S. farmland, futures markets, and commodity prices. You can hedge a lot of bets and make a lot of money if you know what's happening with U.S. agriculture."
If DOGE were to combine that sensitive data with other sources of government information that it has sought access to, such as Internal Revenue Service and Social Security records, it could create an incredibly detailed dossier of farmers' and ranchers' lives, along with their networks and the people they employ, sell to and contract with.
Farmers' financial and production data should be protected at all costs, for privacy reasons and because of competition.
You can hedge a lot of bets and make a lot of money if you know what's happening with U.S. agriculture.
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