The Other National Debt

By Craig Cox, EWG midwest vice-president, and Nils Bruzelius, executive editor. You hear plenty of talk about the ballooning federal deficit created by tax cuts, two wars and the effort to dig out of the economic meltdown, but precious little about the funding gap that’s hollowing out federal programs designed to protect America’s soil and water. An economic recovery and... Continue Reading...

School Lunches: Where’s the Broccoli?

Special to AgMag from EWG Senior Analyst Kari Hamerschlag. First Lady Michelle Obama’s noble fight against childhood obesity cannot be won unless members of Congress act boldly this spring and vote to give school lunches the healthy makeover that our kids deserve and desperately need. Reauthorized every 4-5 years, the Child Nutrition Act supports a range of child nutrition... Continue Reading...

It’s Time for Big Chicken to Take Responsibility

Environmentalists filed suit against poultry giant Perdue and one of its contract chicken farms last week (March 2) for violations to the Clean Water Act. For decades, livestock producers have allowed large amounts of toxic run-off from animal waste to flow into the streams and rivers feeding Chesapeake Bay. The suit aims to link Perdue to an 80,000-bird factory operation that... Continue Reading...

According to Big Ag, Organic Farming Means More Jobs

First, the heavily subsidized commodity crop growers complained when the Department of Agriculture dared to send out encouraging messages about local and organic farming. Next, a coalition of Big Ag groups, including USA Rice and the Texas and Minnesota Corn Growers Associations, fired another salvo at organics, this time in an online broadside this week (March 1) that missed... Continue Reading...

This Little Piggy Has Questions About the Farmer’s Market

How threatened is Agribiz by the baby steps the Department of Agriculture has taken recently in support of organic and local agriculture? Threatened enough that one big grower personally castigated USDA Undersecretary Katherine Merrigan last month at the department’s Outlook Conference. Here’s the account that ran in the Des Moines Register: Tim Burrack, an... Continue Reading...