The Issue
Farm Policy
EWG works hard for a farm policy that does more to support family farmers, protect the environment, encourage healthy diets and ensure better access to healthy food – all while supporting working families.
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The Latest on Farm Policy
The departure of Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “leaves a gaping hole in the Obama administration's leadership on food and agriculture policy,” Environmental Working Group’s president Ken Cook said today.
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In recent years, millions of acres of America’s native grasslands have been plowed under to grow corn for ethanol to blend into gasoline. And new research is clearly pointing to the federal ethanol mandate as a main driver of this tsunami of land conversion in the Midwest.
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America’s Midwest and Great Plains are often derisively described as fly-over country. And now unblinking, data-collecting satellites soaring over the western Corn Belt have recorded a devastating manmade environmental disaster.
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Environmental Working Group vice president for government affairs Scott Faber released the following statement on the American Family Economic Protection Act.
Read MoreTomorrow, the Senate Committee on Agriculture will hold a hearing titled “Drought, Fire and Freeze: The Economic Disasters for America’s Agricultural Producers.&rd
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By driving up the price of food and gas and causing costly engine damage, corn ethanol has been bad news for consumers. And by driving up the price of food, corn ethanol is also costing all of us money – by increasing the cost of federal programs like food stamps and school lunches.
Read MoreAbout every five years, Congress debates legislation popularly known as the “farm bill,” a huge and complex measure that largely determines the nation’s agricultural and nutrition support policies.
Read MoreFaster is better, right? So is it a good thing that it now takes only 59 days for an Iowa lake to undergo a change that once took 631 days? No. Not when we’re talking about how long it takes for a lake to fill up with mud.
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I need to start by publicly apologizing for not engaging in the debate over genetically engineered crops, technically, genetically modified organisms or GMOs, until two years ago.
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Events that used to be called “acts of God” – but that we now realize are increasingly driven by human activity – became the most important environmental news stories of 2012 in the opinion of Environmental Working Group’s staff of scientists, analysts, lawyers, organizers and others. Topping their list was the devastating and ongoing drought that beset much of the United States. As a group, climate-related events – including superstorm Sandy – garnered more votes than any other topic.
Read MoreBoth the Senate and House versions of the farm bill include $6 billion in cuts to conservation programs. Should a new version emerge from the fiscal cliff negotiations, these misguided cuts are sure to be part of the deal.
Read MoreSimple good governance and due process are reason enough to demand open deliberation on the farm bill, but there are significant budgetary reasons to insist on it as well, and lawmakers should take note of them.
Read MoreEWG’s Scott Faber joined representatives of several fiscally conservative organizations in calling on Congress not to slip a full farm bill reauthorization into any legislative package they cobble together to avoid the imminent “fiscal cliff.”
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group joined several groups today at the National Press Club to call on lawmakers to stop a secret farm bill from being attached to any legislation designed to straighten out the nation's finances. The groups urged Congress to pass a responsible one-year extension bill that is paid for by eliminating direct payments.
Read MoreCongressional leaders in search of a compromise to avoid plunging off the “fiscal cliff” are under growing pressure from the agriculture subsidy lobby and its friends in Congress to attach a subsidy-laden farm bill to legislation ostensibly designed to straighten out the nation’s finances.
Read MoreSyndicated columnist Froma Harrop explains how federal crop insurance is flooding the heartland in her latest column on RealClearPolitics.com.
Read MoreCongressional leaders in search of a compromise to avert the “fiscal cliff” are under growing pressure from advocates for subsidized agriculture to attach a $1 trillion farm bill to legislation ostensibly designed to straighten out the nation’s finances.
Read MoreCongressional leaders in search of a compromise to avert the “fiscal cliff” are under growing pressure from advocates for subsidized agriculture to attach a $1 trillion farm bill to legislation ostensibly designed to straighten out the nation’s finances.
Read MoreEnvironment & Energy Daily (subscription only) reports that free market groups are urging the White House and congressional leaders to avoid using the farm bill as a means to a fiscal cliff deal.
Read MoreA recent blog by DTN/The Progressive Farmer’s Marcia Zarley Taylor aptly titled Extreme Insurance should give taxpayers and policymakers pause.
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