The Issue
Subsidies
EWG’s renowned farm subsidy database reveals that taxpayer support goes mostly to large, profitable operations, not to sustainable family farms that truly need the help. We’re working to change a badly broken system.
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The Latest on Subsidies
Arizona Sen. John McCain ignited an historic debate over crop insurance yesterday when he offered an amendment to the farm bill that would end insurance subsidies to tobacco farmers.
Read MoreOpponents of crop insurance reform contend that common-sense reform designed to level the playing field for family farmers and protect taxpayers and the environment will “weaken” the farm safety net.
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A day after the Senate Agriculture committee passed its version of the 2013 farm bill, the House committee did the same.
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group (EWG) applauds Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and the other co-sponsors of the Balancing Food, Farm and the Environment Act for recognizing that our land, our food, and our farms are all worth protecting.
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Environmental Working Group (EWG) today launched the Worth Protecting social media and advocacy campaign to underscore the need for federal farm bill reforms that protect public health and the environment and support future generations of family farmers.
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group (EWG) today launched the Worth Protecting social media and advocacy campaign to underscore the need for federal farm bill reforms that protect public health and the environment and support future generations of family farmers.
Read MoreAs Congress gets ready to mark up the federal farm bill, chef Tom Colicchio and EWG will launch the “Worth Protecting” initiative tomorrow (May 7) to push lawmakers for serious reforms.
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There were two reasons that Environmental Working Group (EWG) commissioned agricultural economist Bruce Babcock of Iowa State University to analyze how the heavily subsidized federal crop insurance program performed during the Corn Belt drought of 2012. The 2012 drought drastically cut crop yields across several states and Congress is about to take up the farm bill again under serious pressure to cut spending.
Read MoreFederally subsidized crop insurance is now the most expensive program supporting farm income, so it’s no surprise that it will be at the center of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s deliberations on the 2013 farm bill, starting later this month. And as it happens, last year’s epic drought, which decimated crops across a wide swath of America, afforded a unique opportunity to assess the effectiveness of a program whose costs have ballooned to $9 billion a year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Read MoreA new analysis commissioned by the Environmental Working Group debunks the myth that federally-subsidized crop insurance will save taxpayers money and protect farmers from crippling losses when natural disasters occur.
Read MoreCould the Farm Bill be an opportunity to promote better bug killers?
Read MoreMinnesota Congressman Colin Peterson (D-Minn.) struck a nerve this month when he said that “there is five times as much fraud” in the federal crop insurance program as there is the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
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Mother Nature has good news for people who love bad news.
According to the long-term spring weather forecast produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the drought in the Great Plains and Southwest will continue, temperatures will be warmer than average nationwide, and potential for floods will rise.
Read MoreFor years the federal government wrongly sent millions in taxpayer-funded farm subsidies to dead farmers – a black eye for subsidy defenders and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Now it seems farmers are paying the dead back for all that bad publicity by bulldozing historic prairie cemeteries.
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The draft budget released by the House Budget Committee takes a first step toward reforming wasteful farm programs by calling for $31 billion in savings from farm subsidies and crop insurance, Environmental Working Group said in a statement today. The budget document cited record farm income over the last few years in the face of crippling federal deficits as a reason to reexamine farm subsidies and the structure of the bloated crop insurance program.
Read MoreSen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.) today introduced companion bills in Congress that would provide much-needed reform of the heavily subsidized federal crop insurance program. The Crop Insurance Subsidy Reduction Act of 2013 would restore the program’s fiscal integrity while ensuring that farmers are protected by an effective safety net when the weather turns against them.
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