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 following editorial, written by Thomas Rowley of Rural Policy Research Institute, explains---in terms we can all understand--the ways we are linked to farm policy, and how the idea that farm subsidies "help farmers" is misleading.
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Congress has attached an action to next year's agriculture appropriations bill that will allow synthetic ingredients to be used in manufacturing products labeled with USDA's green "organic" seal.
Read MoreUruguay is following in Brazil's footsteps, announcing July 26 that it will file a WTO complaint against the U.S. over rice subsidies. Increasing international pressure has finally forced Congress to deal with the bloated farm subsidies program, and next month they'll debate whether to cut subsidies or food stamps.
Read MoreAs Congress prepares to vote on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget for the next year, U.S. Representatives Hilda Solis of California and Tim Bishop of New York will introduce an amendment that would bar the Agency from using staff time or money to analyze data from pesticide tests on human subjects. Their amendment also bars the EPA from conducting human pesticide experiments on its own.
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A new investigation by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the National Black Farmers Association reveals that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) withheld nearly three out of every four dollars in a $2.3 billion landmark civil rights settlement with black farmers.
Read MoreAt a Subcommittee hearing September 28, Chairman Steve Chabot (R-OH 1st) and other members supported the main findings in Environmental Working Group's (EWG) July 2004 investigation, which reported that the landmark 1999 civil rights settlement of black family farmers' discrimination claims against USDA (Pigford v. Glickman) has been almost a complete failure and must be redressed.
Read MoreGrist magazine reports that the Bush Administration, at the behest of agribusiness lobbyists, has quietly taken several actions to weaken national standards for organic food. The Department of Agriculture made the changes without allowing public comment or feedback from the National Organic Standards Board, an advisory panel that is supposed to review changes to the standards.
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View and Download the report here: EWG Corn Ethanol Energy Security
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The "Freedom to Farm" legislation, approved by a partisan vote of the House Agriculture Committee, will be taken up by the House of Representatives soon after it reconvenes on Tuesday, February 27.
Read MoreSince 1985, agricultural lawmakers have defended payment of more than $108 billion in federal subsidies to farmers by arguing that the payments help to protect the environment.
Read MoreOver the past 10 years, American taxpayers made payments totaling $108.9 billion through Federal farm subsidy programs.
Read MoreAmerican taxpayers are sending hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal farm subsidy checks every year to a handful of absentee owners, corporations and other "farmers" who live smack in the middle of the country's biggest cities.
Read MoreIt is well established in the economic literature that Federal farm assistance programs enhance the value of all U.S. farmland. According to USDA, farm subsidies have enhanced farmland values on average between 15 and 20 percent.
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