House Ag looks at privacy for dairy farmers

The House Agriculture Affairs Committee on Thursday passed HB269, which will provide the
same private information protection to dairies nutrient management programs that the beef industry has been granted. Representative Boyle noted that such information may have very little to do with a violation of rule or law, but may contain proprietary information.

Testifying on behalf of the bill were Roger Batt of Food Producers of Idaho, and Brent Olmstead of the Milk Producers of Idaho, pointing out that last year's testimony on behalf of a similar bill relating to the beef industry applies here. Information such as how a dairy farmer manages his fields, tests his product and transports waste is proprietary information, similar to a business plan, with information that could give a competitive advantage to one dairy over another. Wally Butler, range and livestock specialist for the Farm Bureau Federation, also voiced his organization's support for the bill.

Idaho Conservation League's Courtney Washburn said her organization opposed last year's cattle bill as well as this one, in what she said is interest in protecting public health and the environment.

"I’m not convinced nutrient management plans are trade secrets," she said.

When Washburn was questioned further by committee members about similar legislation that affords Micron exemptions to the public records law, she noted that ICL had the same opposition in the case of that legislation.

ICARE's Alma Hasse noted that two bills were not similar, however.

"Cow chips and micro chips are two completely different things," she said. "Any time that an industry feels the need to make every aspect of it’s industry proprietary, especially when it’s cow dung, I don’t see how it helps the public, especially rural communities that are battling water and air quality issues."

Hasse noted that her organization conducted an audit that showed approximately a third of the time a dairy is in noncompliance, it is not listed as such but revealed to be so by inspectors' notations. Such notations would be considered proprietary under the new law.

"If you want the public to know what’s going on in these sites, then this is a bad bill," she said.

John Foster representing the Idaho Press Club expressed his opposition to the bill, but only reluctantly, noting that this bill in particular has come up too quickly for them to have the opportunity to work with the industry to accomplish their objectives but still allow access to information.

"The Press Club likes to position itself as an organization that utilizes the public records law," he said, "The assumption is that the persons making the request and those fulfilling the request are both fulfilling the common good ... We just wanted a seat at the table to help avoid anything inadvertent."