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The Farm Subsidy Jackpot

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Critics of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (previously known as food stamps) claim some recipients are wrongly receiving benefits after winning lottery jackpots. SNAP fraud is serious. Those who are not in need and improperly receive benefits are taking precious resources from people desperate to feed their families in our slowly healing economy. Thankfully, according to the US Department of Agriculture, SNAP fraud is limited.

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Policy Plate: The subsidy jackpot and California’s nitrate problem

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Critics of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (previously known as food stamps) have been using recent news stories of lottery winners getting SNAP benefits to demonize the program, despite its very low instance of fraud. These attacks come when more than 40 million Americans – half of them children – rely on food stamps to get through a brutal recession.

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Policy Plate: Conservation news

Monday, March 12, 2012

News on conservation problems that we currently face.

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Policy Plate: Big City Mayors’ Big Push

Friday, March 9, 2012

This week, a handful of big city mayors sent a letter to the House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders urging them to support healthy and local food initiatives.

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Local & Sustainable

Policy Plate: National Farmers Union supports the conservation compact

Thursday, March 8, 2012

The National Farmers Union just voted at its annual meeting to support asking farmers to limit soil erosion and protect wetlands in return for generous premium subsidies. Those subsidies cost taxpayers $7.4 billion in 2011.

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Policy Plate: Senate hearing on healthy and local food

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

At today’s hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee, devoted to Healthy Food Initiatives, Local Production, and Nutrition, Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) said: "Whether a Kansas farmer is growing wheat that will be made into bread in a Kansas bakery, or selling Georgia peaches to schools through a food hub in Atlanta, local food systems mean a win-win for agriculture and the local economy."

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Local & Sustainable

Policy Plate: Conservation compact is key for clean drinking water

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Farmers can produce far more than the world’s food and fiber — they can also contribute to the enormous task of keeping our drinking water clean and our streams healthy.

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Policy Plate: Local food goes to the White House

Monday, March 5, 2012

Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan of the U.S. Department of Agriculture continued the national conversation about USDA’s support for local and regional food projects with a live streaming event today and tweet-up at the White House. Local and regional food systems offer economic opportunities for local farmers, ranchers and food entrepreneurs.

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Local & Sustainable

In case you missed it...

Friday, March 2, 2012

At this week’s Senate Agriculture Committee hearing, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) made his case for protecting the Conservation Title in the next farm bill.

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Policy Plate: Nothing but scraps

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Multiple agriculture articles, including jobs, food safety, food stamps, subsidies and a grower trade show.

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Policy Plate: USDA provides directions to the local market

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack and Undersecretary Katherine Merrigan today unveiled the new Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass. The online tool aims to spur ideas on how to generate more local and regional food resources and offers examples of local producers benefiting from the program, which got underway two years ago.

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Local & Sustainable

Policy Plate: Senate conservation hearing

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Today was the day the Senate Ag Committee held its hearing on conservation provisions of the evolving 2012 farm bill. The general sentiment of the witnesses and members of the committee was that conservation programs work to protect the environment, and that farmers like them. Fears of another round of funding cuts were evident, however.

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Honor the Conservation Compact

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Some commitments should be honored. In exchange for farm subsidies, farmers have for decades committed to adopt land management practices that reduce the runoff from their fields – a provision of the 1985 farm bill called “conservation compliance.”

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Policy Plate: Calling All Conservation Heroes on Capitol Hill

Monday, February 27, 2012

Today, Environmental Working Group released a new research paper by conservationist Max Schnepf that looks at the history of America’s eroding conservation compact and how farmers view the long-standing deal between them and taxpayers.

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Policy Plate: More Fruits and Veggies, Please?

Friday, February 24, 2012

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is predicting slightly higher per capita consumption of fruits, vegetables and nuts over the next 10 years, according to the produce industry publication The Packer. Every little bit counts, and there’s no question that the way toward a healthier nation is for everyone – but especially kids – to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

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Policy Plate: Outlook says corn, faster approval for GMOs

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Today is the annual US Department of Agriculture Outlook Forum. The department announced projections for the next crop year with 94 million acres devoted to corn - up 2 million acres from 2011, 58 million acres in wheat, 75 million acres in soybeans and just 13 million acres of cotton. But how much of the extra acreage will come from plowing up conservation land that protects water, soil and wildlife while sequestering carbon?

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Policy Plate: Room for debate and the pesticide bullies

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The New York Times has asked Craig Cox, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group, to weigh in on agriculture policy in its Room for Debate series. The topic: Farm Bill, Beyond the Farm. The Times asks: The farm bill, being debated in the Senate this month, is felt far beyond the cornfields of Iowa. It’s about what we grow, but it’s also about what we eat and how we live. On the potato chip aisle, Americans are seeing the farm bill’s market pressures.

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Don’t Let The Pesticide Lobby Play Bully

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Tell USDA to stand by its pesticide data program. It's the time of year when the U.S. Department of Agriculture is preparing to release its annual pesticide data – information the Environmental Working Group uses to bring you the Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which helps careful consumers minimize their exposure to pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables.

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Chemicals in Food

Policy Plate: E15 decision, Bon Appétit to Sustainability

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

On Friday afternoon (Feb. 17), the Environmental Protection Agency gave its OK to increasing from 10 percent to 15 percent the amount of ethanol – most of it from corn – blended into the gasoline supply. Since older cars can’t safely use E15, that’s likely to become a nightmare for owners who fill up with the wrong fuel.

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Policy Plate: A world awash in nitrogen, bad headline of the week

Friday, February 17, 2012

Welcome to EWG’s Policy Plate, where we plan to serve up a daily helping of food and farm news during the 2012 farm bill debate. E&E News had smart piece yesterday about how nitrogen pollution threatens human health and speeds climate change.

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