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
EWG's Kari Hamerschlag and authors Anna Lappé and Dan Imhoff write the House Agriculture Committee to protest cuts of $16 billion from nutrition assistance and $6.1 billion from conservation programs.
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More than 60 leading chefs, authors, food and agriculture policy and nutrition experts, business leaders and environment and health organizations have sent an open letter to Capitol Hill objecting that the House agriculture committee’s proposed farm bill would “steer the next five years of national food and farm policy in the wrong direction.”
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Crop farmers are going to be OK coming out of the current drought – but not taxpayers, economist Bruce Babcock of Iowa State University says in a National Public Radio interview.
Read MoreAn article by Marcia Zarley Taylor in DTN/The Progressive Farmer reveals how far the crop insurance program has strayed from its origins as a fiscally responsible safety net for farmers. Most farmers in the corn belt, covered by new so-called revenue protection insurance polices, stand to make more money this year – thanks to taxpayers – than they would have if they hadn’t lost crops because of the drought.
Read MoreSome members of Congress appear eager to jam through a costly drought disaster relief program with a flawed farm bill. In an AgMag post entitled “Bad Ideas Spring from Drought,” Environmental Working Group’s Scott Faber points out that Congress has already provided farmers with a gold-plated disaster program called crop insurance - and it will pay farmers indemnities regardless of whether Congress passes a farm bill.
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Several members of Congress are using the drought to push for a costly and duplicative disaster assistance program and passage of the worst farm bill in decades.
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The drought hammering farmers and communities across the Corn Belt is being used by some as an excuse to send “the worst farm bill in recent memory” to the floor of the House of Representatives. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio.) addressed those calls today, saying (mp3): “Well there’s no question that there’s a real threat throughout the Midwest because of the dry conditions. Most farmers in my district avail themselves of crop insurance. That’s why it is in the farm bill, that’s why our government subsidizes the cost of crop insurance, to encourage farmers to buy that. In most cases it should be sufficient to deal with this problem.”
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group held a media briefing with Dr. Bruce Babock of Iowa State University to discuss the 2012 drought and its implication for the federal crop insurance program.
Read MoreLast week the House Ag Committee pushed through one of the worst pieces of food and farm legislation in recent history. While Ag leaders are pressing for the bill to come to the floor, Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), is arguing that the bill “takes us backward in terms of budget-busting crop subsidies, unlimited insurance subsidies, and trade-distorting programs”
Read MoreToday at the National Press Club, Environmental Working Group and a wide array of public interest organizations, including anti-hunger, public health, labor and animal welfare advocates – took part in a widely covered press conference to highlight the damaging and alarming provisions of the farm bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee.
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group joined anti-hunger, public health, labor, and animal welfare groups at the National Press Club to voice deep concerns with the recently passed House Agriculture Committee 2012 farm bill.
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EWG and groups including the Humane Society of the United States, Natural Resources Defense Council, Bread for the World, the Center for Food Safety, Defenders of Wildlife, Oxfam America, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine plan a press conference for Tuesday, July 17, at the National Press Club to discuss the alarming and damaging provisions in the House Agriculture Committee's farm bill.
Read MoreThe Los Angeles Times’ Kim Geiger reports that the amendment added by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to the House Agriculture Committee’s draft of the farm bill could "block states from imposing their own standards for agriculture products on producers from other states" and "jeopardize California laws to protect chickens."
Read MoreUnlimited crop insurance subsidies lead growers to make planting decisions that are bad for the environment, two of the nation’s most respected agricultural economists conclude in a newly published paper.
Read MoreLate Wednesday night, July 11, the House Agriculture Committee added an amendment by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to the farm bill that would severely limit states’ authority to regulate conditions or standards of agricultural production.
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In the early hours Thursday, the House Agriculture Committee marked up and passed a bill that is quite simply the worst piece of food and farm legislation in recent memory. In a statement released earlier today, Environmental Working Group’s Scott Faber said: "The committee’s farm bill increases unlimited subsidies for the largest and most profitable farm businesses. As millions of families struggle to put food on the table, the bill cuts funding for critical nutrition assistance programs by $16.1 billion."
Read MoreThe budget-busting farm bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee late Wednesday night is quite simply the worst piece of farm and food legislation in decades. The bill will feed fewer people, help fewer farmers, do less to promote healthy diets and weaken environmental protections – and it will cost far more than congressional bean counters say.
Read MoreThe farm bill passed by the House Agriculture Committee last night is quite simply the worst piece of food and farm legislation in recent memory. With the U.S government in a deep fiscal crisis, the committee’s farm bill increases unlimited subsidies for the largest and most profitable farm businesses.
Read MoreAs the House Agriculture Committee considered a proposal by Reps. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) to expand crop insurance subsidies by more than $9 billion, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation to instead roll back crop insurance subsidy rates.
Read MoreA new report shows that Congress could save taxpayers at least $42 billion over 10 years, provide farmers with a more fiscally and environmentally responsible safety net and avoid deep cuts to vital nutrition and conservation programs by scaling crop insurance subsidies back to more reasonable levels.
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