The Issue
Environment
Farms and ranches cover more than half of all land in the United States. EWG works to keep the land productive and to protect soil, water and wildlife.
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The Latest on Environment
Taking steps to confront the threat of a warming planet would have the huge added payoff of making people healthier around the globe, a group of scientists have concluded in a unique package of new research papers.
The health “co-benefits” of cutting greenhouse gas emissions include significantly cutting rates of heart and artery disease, respiratory infections, strokes, various cancers, lung disease and dementia, the scientists found. They argue that the financial savings from these health gains could offset a significant portion of the economic cost of reducing emissions.
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Law professor Neil Hamilton penned a harsh critique of the Farm Bureau's dangerously shortsighed opposition to climate change legislation in a guest column in
Read MoreIn a new report for Worldwatch Institute, Dr. Samuel Myers outlines the impacts of global environmental change on human health in compelling detail, from the increases in certain infectious diseases to food and water scarcity among vulnerable populations. Humans are changing the environment, both locally and globally, in unprecedented ways and the consequences of these changes are already being felt in many communities across the planet.
Read MoreBig Ag is taking a beating from Al Gore's recent green blitz of late night comedy shows. On tour promoting his new book, Our Choice, the former VP and Nobel Prize and Oscar winner has been blunt in his assessments of agriculture's contribution to the climate change crisis.
Read MoreThe dedicated folks at The Organic Center released a hard hitting report today, Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use: The First Thirteen Years.
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“Today’s high (or low) temperature was an all-time record for this date.” How many times have you heard that? This kind of news has been a staple of local weather forecasts for decades. And if you’d been keeping track, you would have noticed something curious. The number of days that produce sweltering record high temperatures has been eclipsing the number of days with frigid record lows.
Read MoreVeteran reporter Dan Morgan has taken a hard, clear-eyed look at carbon markets for agriculture and the validity of various conservation practices aimed at fighting climate change (h/t farmpolicy.com).
Read MoreA Prairie Home Companion, the long-running radio variety show, Robert Altman movie and purveyor of powdermilk biscuits,usually broadcasts from St. Paul, Minnesota. Last week's performance originated from Des Moines. During the show's the Lives of the Cowboys segment, the following exchange transpired.
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The Agriculture Research Service (ARS) of the US Department of Agriculture released a surprising bit of climate change-related research on Tuesday, work that suggests that getting big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from simple changes in common farming practices may not be as easy as many hope.
Read MoreHearings began in the Senate last week on the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. This bill, the companion legislation to the Waxman-Markey climate change bill passed by the House, aims for a 20 percent cut in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
Read MoreCrying Wolf, EWG's recent report on current climate change legislation, convincingly debunked exaggerated claims that a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gases will increase costs for the agriculture sector. Many farm state lawmakers and agri-lobby groups have been recklessly misstating and inflating the cost of protecting agriculture from the ravages of climate change, using flawed conclusions drawn from their analysis of the Waxman-Markey climate bill (officially the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 or ACES).
Read MoreMississippi River and Gulf of Mexico watershed informational slides.
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When we talk about California and climate change, agriculture matters. California's agriculture sector faces two major challenges:
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- Reduce its contribution to climate change.
- Arm itself against the threats a warming planet poses to agricultural production.
Farm industry leaders and their supporters in Congress are trying to derail climate change legislation by insisting that the House-passed bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), will cause ruinous increases in the costs of production for farmers. They claim this threat is so potentially devastating that climate change legislation should be shelved or loaded up with concessions that send more money to their agricultural constituents.
Read MoreRemarks by Environmental Working Group Midwest Vice-President Craig Cox to the Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force Public Meeting.
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EWG testifies before the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force that farm run-off in the Mississippi River Basin expands the Gulf of Mexico “dead zone.”
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Minneapolis Star Tribune
Published September 18, 2006
The idea that agriculture has become a major source of pollution in the Mississippi River will startle many Midwesterners. But it's no surprise to the government's top environmental regulators.
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New Standard, Jessica Azulay
Published April 11, 2006
Every summer, a huge swell of algae spreads through the Gulf of Mexico and then dies, smothering aquatic life in its wake. Scientists have documented this expanding "dead zone" since the early 1970s, finding that in recent years it has grown to an average of 14,000 square miles of ocean.
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