Climate Change Cage Match: EWG vs. Farm Bureau

Crying Wolf, EWG's recent report on current climate change legislation, convincingly debunked exaggerated claims that a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gases will increase costs for the agriculture sector. Many farm state lawmakers and agri-lobby groups have been recklessly misstating and inflating the cost of protecting agriculture from the ravages of climate change, using flawed conclusions drawn from their analysis of the Waxman-Markey climate bill (officially the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 or ACES).

Drought, flooding and increasingly volatile weather will hammer food production in America unless something substantive is done soon, so the efforts to derail climate legislation are irresponsible at best.

Crying Wolf provided a much needed voice of reason in the climate debate and blunted the wild claims made by farm groups, many of which deny outright that climate change is occurring or is a threat.

Needless to say, those who are out there crying wolf didn't like our report much. So late last week, in the pages of the Mitchell Daily Republic, EWG  squared off in a point-counterpoint with the South Dakota chapter of the American Farm Bureau Federation. The Farm Bureau is one of the largest farm lobby groups and a prime defender of the current corporate farm subsidy system that sends billions of taxpayer dollars every year to large and profitable farm businesses.

Read the whole thing here (Reg Required).

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