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Policy Plate: Keeping Score

Thursday, June 14, 2012

National leaders in food and farm policy have taken steps to form a new nonprofit organization that for the first time will hold lawmakers in Congress accountable for their votes on a broad range of issues, including food safety, farm subsidies, nutrition assistance, farm animal welfare, fisheries management, organic and local food, farm and food worker justice, and the impacts of food and farm policies on the environment.

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Policy Plate: More Editorials, the Crop Insurance Lobby Powerhouse

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

The Environmental Working Group released two eye-opening investigations today as the Senate farm bill teeters between passage and failure. The first is an exhaustive analysis of the crop insurance lobby and reveals why subsidizing crop insurance has been in such favor with Congress:

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Secret Lobby for Secret Safety Net

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Few Americans know that taxpayers finance a $90 billion crop insurance program that provides millions in subsidies to highly profitable farm businesses and insurance companies. And even fewer know that the crop insurance industry spends more on lobbying and political donations than farm organization representing corn, soybean and wheat farmers.

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Crop Insurance Subsidy Double Speak

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

When the government allows oil and gas companies to avoid paying taxes, lawmakers call it a “subsidy.” But when the government pays 62 percent of the cost of obtaining crop insurance, it’s called a “discount?”

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Policy Plate: Gross Inequity in New Crop Insurance Data

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

NEW on the Environmental Working Group’s highly-regarded farm subsidy database (more than 350 million searches since 2004): crop insurance data.

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Policy Plate: More Editorials Slam Senate Farm Bill

Monday, June 11, 2012

Editorial boards across the country continue deriding the lack of meaningful reform in the Senate farm bill. The Washington Post weighed in today in an editorial called, “Fertile ground for change.” Some excerpts: "The bill’s savings would have been almost twice as great if it did not offset the elimination of direct payments with a new, subsidized crop insurance program on top of the generous one from which farmers already benefit."

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The Case for Crop Insurance Reform

Monday, June 11, 2012

The Senate is expected to start debate this week on adoption of common sense reforms to the federal crop insurance program. This issue could not be more important. Crop insurance has quietly become the primary source of federal subsidies for farmers.

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Policy Plate: Obama Wants Deeper Crop Insurance Cuts

Friday, June 8, 2012

The New York Times’ Ron Nixon reports that the Obama administration wants to see deeper cuts to crop insurance as the farm bill debate goes forward: "The bill is expected to cost about $969 billion over the next 10 years, but cuts overall spending by $23 billion."

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Policy Plate: Crop Insurance Reform Amendments Introduced

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., introduced amendments today that would save taxpayers billions of dollars and take important steps toward reforming the heavily subsidized federal crop insurance program.

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Policy Plate: New Farm Bill Version Not Much Improvement

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

The Salt Lake City Tribune joined the growing list of newspapers casting scorn on the Senate Agriculture Committee’s 2012 farm bill.

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Southern Discomfort

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

It seems that an expensive new entitlement program, unlimited insurance subsidies and new insurance programs designed just for cotton and peanut farmers just aren't enough for some Southern legislators.

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Join the Fight to Provide Healthy Food for Struggling Families

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

For those of us lucky enough to sit down every day to healthy, nutritious meals, it’s easy to forget that millions of American families in the grip of the recession are struggling to put food on the table and often end up consuming cheap, heavily processed food that puts their health at risk.

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Policy Plate: Good Food Leaders Demand a Healthy Farm Bill

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The Environmental Working Group today released a letter signed by more than 70 American food and health leaders who urged Congress to cut crop insurance subsidies and redirect that money into vital investments in nutrition, healthy food and conservation programs. Signers include Michal Pollan, Bill McKibben, Marion Nestle and celebrity chefs Mario Batali, Tom Collichio, Alice Waters and Rick Bayless.

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Policy Plate: Where the Trough Is Overflowing

Monday, June 4, 2012

New York Times’ editorial board member Robert Semple penned a blistering take on the Senate farm bill for the paper’s Sunday Outlook section. Some excerpts: "Every five years or so, Congress promises a new, improved farm bill that will end unnecessary subsidies to big farmers, enhance the environment and actually do something to help small farmers and small towns."

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Policy Plate: Blowing the Lid Off Crop Insurance Subsidies

Friday, June 1, 2012

EWG released an eye-opening report yesterday on subsidized crop insurance’s out-of-control spending. Using newly acquired government data, EWG demonstrated that crop insurance subsidies overwhelmingly benefit large agricultural operations – to the tune of more than a million dollars apiece in 2011 for 26 growers.

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Policy Plate: No Accountability for Million Dollar Crop Insurance Payments

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Today the Environmental Working Group released a new analysis of 1 million+ government records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. We found that last year more than 10,000 farming operations have received federal crop insurance premium subsidies ranging from $100,000 to more than $1 million apiece. Some 26 farming operations received subsidies of $1 million or more last year.

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Policy Plate: Minnesotans Fight Back Against Agriculture Pollution

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

A diverse coalition that included farmers, urban residents and conservation and business groups called on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency yesterday to hold farm operations accountable for their share of run-off pollution flowing into Minnesota waterways and the Mississippi River.

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Policy Plate: Riot of Soil Erosion Brings Shame

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

John Walter, executive editor of Successful Farming Magazine & Agriculture.com, took a Memorial Day weekend trip through western Iowa. Walter writes today at Agriculture.com about the environmental catastrophe he witnessed on his drive.

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Policy Plate: The Diane Rehm Show Tackles Farm Bill

Thursday, May 24, 2012

NPR’s Diane Rehm Show hosted a panel discussion this morning featuring Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Jerry Hagstrom of The Hagstrom Report, Chandler Goule of the National Farmers Union and Environmental Working Group’s own Scott Faber.

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Policy Plate: Farm Bill Debate and Ag Pollution Continue

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

While the Senate and House Agriculture Committees debate how drastically they will cut proven farm bill conservation programs, widespread industrial agriculture pollution continues to take its toll. An ABC News affiliate in Baltimore reports this morning that the Maryland Department of the Environment found at least 6,000 dead fish washed ashore Monday in two Maryland counties: "MDE officials have been watching algae blooms since March and say that it is likely that one of the blooms caused the fish kill."

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