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USDA’s failure to collect agricultural pesticide and fertilizer usage data from 2007 to 2009 because of budget constraints had a big impact on data users, a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concludes. The report (GAO-11-37) finds that when USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) scaled back its chemical usage data program in 2007 and stopped collecting such data entirely in 2009, many people were forced to rely on older data. The program was restored in 2010 after NASS received hundreds of complaints from data users. GAO contacted 25 of those users, including state pesticide agencies, chemical manufacturers, industry organizations, and public interest groups, and found that most of them consider NASS chemical usage data to be of high quality and useful for their purposes. But GAO also found that NASS chemical usage data are difficult to find online. The report recommends that NASS identify the users of its chemical usage data to ensure that their needs are being met.
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