The Latest from AgMag

Sarah (not her real name), was usually one of the best students I met while teaching 8^th grade math in a New Orleans public school. When I asked a question, her hand darted into the air as she politely, and more importantly quietly, waited to be called upon. Her answers were rarely off-target. The questions she raised were thought-provoking. She understood what she read. She refused to be defeated by my most challenging math problems.

Key Issues: 

Food

Healthy Eating

Some members of Congress appear eager to jam through a costly drought disaster relief program with a flawed farm bill. In an AgMag post entitled “Bad Ideas Spring from Drought,” Environmental Working Group’s Scott Faber points out that Congress has already provided farmers with a gold-plated disaster program called crop insurance - and it will pay farmers indemnities regardless of whether Congress passes a farm bill.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Farm Policy

Environment

The drought hammering farmers and communities across the Corn Belt is being used by some as an excuse to send “the worst farm bill in recent memory” to the floor of the House of Representatives. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio.) addressed those calls today, saying (mp3): “Well there’s no question that there’s a real threat throughout the Midwest because of the dry conditions. Most farmers in my district avail themselves of crop insurance. That’s why it is in the farm bill, that’s why our government subsidizes the cost of crop insurance, to encourage farmers to buy that. In most cases it should be sufficient to deal with this problem.”

Key Issues: 

Farming

Subsidies

Farm Policy

Environment

Today at the National Press Club, Environmental Working Group and a wide array of public interest organizations, including anti-hunger, public health, labor and animal welfare advocates – took part in a widely covered press conference to highlight the damaging and alarming provisions of the farm bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Subsidies

Farm Policy

Food

Healthy Eating

The Los Angeles Times’ Kim Geiger reports that the amendment added by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to the House Agriculture Committee’s draft of the farm bill could "block states from imposing their own standards for agriculture products on producers from other states" and "jeopardize California laws to protect chickens."

Key Issues: 

Farming

Farm Policy

Late Wednesday night, July 11, the House Agriculture Committee added an amendment by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to the farm bill that would severely limit states’ authority to regulate conditions or standards of agricultural production.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Subsidies

Farm Policy

The budget-busting farm bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee late Wednesday night is quite simply the worst piece of farm and food legislation in decades. The bill will feed fewer people, help fewer farmers, do less to promote healthy diets and weaken environmental protections – and it will cost far more than congressional bean counters say.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Subsidies

Farm Policy

Environment

Food

Local & Sustainable

Healthy Eating

An Environmental Working Group AgMag post calls out the members of Congress who are expected to support unlimited insurance subsidies for corn and cotton farmers during the House Agriculture Committee mark up (that begins tomorrow) but voted against health insurance subsidies for low income Americans in 2009.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Subsidies

Farm Policy

Healthy Eating

Eight members of Congress plan to hold a press conference with anti-hunger groups tomorrow (Tuesday) to protest the $16 billion in cuts to nutrition assistance programs proposed by the leaders of the House Agriculture Committee in their farm bill draft. Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Joe Baca (D-Calif.), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) and Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) will take part.

Key Issues: 

Farming

Subsidies

Farm Policy