The Latest from AgMag

The 2008 Farm Bill has barely left the lot and Congress has pulled it back into the garage for some tinkering. The U.S. Senate has proposed $331 million in cuts to a series of conservation programs designed to leave some land in its natural state rather than plowing every square inch under for crops. Last week, the Environmental Working Group — those folks who publish how much every farmer gets in Farm Bill subsidies — held a conference call to protest.

Key Issues: 

Subsidies

On behalf of our millions of members and activists, we strongly urge you to oppose the Emerson Amendment (#019) and any other attempts to sidestep the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) process to assess the full lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels (including emissions from indirect land-use change).

Key Issues: 

Energy

Biofuels

Daily Republic, Seth Tupper

Published September 24, 2008

South Dakota stands to lose $5.268 million of federal funding that was pledged by the farm bill toward a popular conservation program, according to new estimates from an environmental watchdog group.

Key Issues: 

Subsidies

Farm Policy

Federal regulators are negotiating an agricultural water contract in the Central Valley, the latest of several dozen deals that could tie up water resources for the next 50 years. Thursday is the public's last day to comment on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's proposal to renew its long-term contract with Westlands Water District, which provides water to some 800 farms in Fresno and Kings counties.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Water

After 50 years of legal infighting, a victor has emerged in California's water wars -- agriculture. A decade after environmentalists prevailed in getting more fresh water down the north state's rivers and estuaries to improve fisheries and wildlife habitat, farmers are again triumphant. Central Valley irrigation districts are signing federal contracts that assure their farms ample water for the next 25 to 50 years.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Water

He was immortalized in Grant Wood's 1930 painting "American Gothic": a grim, hardscrabble stoic in overalls, grasping a pitchfork. Guess what? It wasn't really a farmer. It was Wood's dentist posing as a farmer.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Subsidies

Environmental Working Group is a research and advocacy nonprofit with considerable expertise in U.S. agriculture. We are perhaps best known in agriculture policy circles for our Farm Subsidy Database, which lists all the nation’s farm subsidy recipients and their share of the $165 billion taxpayers have spent on the programs since 1995.

Key Issues: 

Subsidies

CNBC Business News, Jane Wells
Published November 19, 2007

Key Issues: 

Farming

Subsidies

The Hill, Jim Snyder

Published June 26, 2009

Excerpt:

The subject of offsets and which federal agency has the responsibility of determining what qualifies has emerged as a problem for some environmental groups, too.

Key Issues: 

Subsidies

Farm Policy