EWG Farm Bill Platform
Reports & Consumer Guides
Farm Bill 2013: EWG Farm Bill Platform
The proposals that emerged from the Senate and the House Agriculture Committee in 2012 fell far short of a farm bill that would end lavish supports for profitable growers, support family farmers, protect the environment and encourage healthy diets. In these pages, EWG outlines what Congress must do in 2013 to produce a farm bill that works for all Americans.
EWG Farm Bill Platform:
As Congress gets to work again in 2013 on renewing the farm bill, it has the opportunity to do more to support family farmers, protect the environment and encourage healthy diets, while ending wasteful and unnecessary subsidy payments that flow to profitable growers and the crop insurance industry. Here is the farm bill platform EWG announced early in 2012.
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Top Ten Reasons to Reject the House Farm Bill:
Last July, the House Agriculture Committee came out with its draft farm bill, which in EWG’s view was the worst piece of farm and food legislation in decades. It would have fed fewer people, helped fewer farmers, weakened environmental protections and cost far more than estimated. Fearing that the full House would reject it – for good reasons as well as bad – the leadership never brought it up for a vote. In 2013 the committee has a chance to do better. Here’s what was wrong with the 2013 proposal.
Insurance for Corn, Not Kids?
On the same day the House voted to end health insurance subsidies for low income Americans, the House Agriculture Committee voted to increase crop insurance subsidies for the largest and most profitable mega farms – and to cut nutrition assistance programs to pay for it.
Fresh Start Needed on Overripe Farm Bill:
If there was one message from last November’s national election, it was that taxpayers – regardless of party – are worried about the nation’s economy and finances. That’s why Congress must start fresh in 2013.
Speaker Boehner Right to Reject Extravagant Farm Bill:
House Speaker John Boehner made the right choice in December when he refused to include a trillion-dollar farm bill in legislation designed to avert the "fiscal cliff."
Southern Discomfort:
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. Read More
The Farm Subsidy Jackpot:
Would critics of SNAP exhibit the same level of outrage if they learned that several Roby, Texas, cotton farmers shared a $46 million dollar jackpot in 1996 and still receive hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece in federal subsidies for years after? Read More