The Latest from AgMag

Good, healthy food was on the menu -- and on the agenda -- this month (March 3) when EWG staff and key supporters gathered in San Francisco for a sumptuous meal and lively discussion at EWG’s 2010 Earth Dinner. The goal of the Earth Dinner was to introduce the audience of environmental stalwarts to the increasing convergence of EWG's two major fields of work -- how common toxic chemicals find their way into the bodies of America's children and the impact of modern agriculture on the environment and human health.

Key Issues: 

Toxics

Farming

Healthy Eating

Water

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.

Key Issues: 

Farm Policy

Environment

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.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Environment

Water

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 the mark by enough to become a self-inflicted wound.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Subsidies

Food

Local & Sustainable

Not so long ago, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did a new life-cycle analysis of corn ethanol to see if the much-subsidized biofuel meets the standard Congress set in the 2007 Energy Bill for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Key Issues: 

Energy

Biofuels

Trimming profit-ensuring farm subsidies to the largest growers of cotton, corn and rice continues to be a hot topic since president Obama announced his intentions to reform the wasteful programs. First in our roundup is this piece in the San Jose Mercury News where  subsidy recipient John Vidovich is holding onto the hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer assistance he so despises.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Subsidies

By Craig Cox, Environmental Working Group Senior Vice-president and manager of EWG's Ames, Iowa, office. The debilitating cuts to US Department of Agriculture conservation programs proposed in President Obama's budget will do permanent damage to America's conservation efforts. These programs are critical to conserving and protecting  our soil, water and air.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Environment

By Craig Cox, Environmental Working Group Senior Vice President and manager of EWG’s Ames, Iowa, branch. On Wednesday (Feb. 3), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated its Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Rule, known as RFS 2, refusing to shift policy on one of the issues most contested by the ethanol industry, the “indirect land use change” rule.

Key Issues: 

Energy

Biofuels

Tonight, President Obama will announce a budget freeze as part of his State of the Union address.  The New York Times' Jackie Calmes described today (Jan. 27) what specific programs will be hit: "The freeze would cover the agencies and programs for which Congress allocates specific budgets each year, including air traffic control, farm subsidies, education, nutrition and national parks."

Key Issues: 

Farming

Subsidies