INFORMATION DROUGHT: Next Crisis for the American Farmer?

This article examines he role of the public and private sectors in disseminating government information, particularly in the agricultural sector, in the United States. When private firms began to offer farmer information that had previously been distributed by the government, farmers were burdened with prohibitive fees. Since the promulgation of guidelines by the Office of Management and Budget for managing federal information resources in 1985, farmers and other citizens have had no alternative to buying their information from the private sector at far steeper prices. Circular A-130 sharply reduced the federal government's efforts to collect and disseminate information to the public, and accelerated the trend toward commercialization and privatization of government information. Empirical evidence is presented, gleaned from a specific government database, the Electronic Dissemination of Information database of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Librarians must recognize that they are stationed on the front line of the fight for public access to electronic information produced by the government. If they are to win the battle, librarians must stand firm and be persistent as well as consistent on this issue.