America’s water, soil and wildlife habitat have never been under greater assault from the ravages of modern industrial agriculture. And since industrial crop production is exempt from most federal regulations, farm bill conservation programs and policies like the conservation compact are often our only line of defense against erosion and water contamination by toxic agrichemicals.

A coalition of environmental groups including the Gulf Restoration Network, Prairie Rivers Network and the Iowa Environmental Council are suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency to force it to set state water quality standards and tighten pollution limits on wastewater treatment plants.

The most troubling news this week was a report from Stephanie Paige Obgurn of High Country News, which took a comprehensive look at the alarming conversion of native prairie grassland to intensive row cropping (subscription required).

Critics of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (previously known as food stamps) have been using recent news stories of lottery winners getting SNAP benefits to demonize the program, despite its very low instance of fraud. These attacks come when more than 40 million Americans – half of them children – rely on food stamps to get through a brutal recession.

Farmers can produce far more than the world’s food and fiber — they can also contribute to the enormous task of keeping our drinking water clean and our streams healthy.

Today was the day the Senate Ag Committee held its hearing on conservation provisions of the evolving 2012 farm bill. The general sentiment of the witnesses and members of the committee was that conservation programs work to protect the environment, and that farmers like them. Fears of another round of funding cuts were evident, however.

Some commitments should be honored. In exchange for farm subsidies, farmers have for decades committed to adopt land management practices that reduce the runoff from their fields – a provision of the 1985 farm bill called “conservation compliance.”

Welcome to EWG’s Policy Plate, where we plan to serve up a daily helping of food and farm news during the 2012 farm bill debate. Some lawmakers have made clear that they intend to cut 7 million acres protected under the farm bill's Conservation Reserve Program.

As the 2012 food and farm policy fights heat up, entrepreneurs have some lessons for Washington. These were on full display at a recent TEDx Manhattan conference, where the innovative business leaders shared how they are changing the way we eat and developing a following among consumers concerned about where their food comes from.