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
As 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.
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A 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.
Read MoreAn Environmental Working Group AgMag post calls out the members of Congress who are expected to support unlimited insurance subsidies for corn and cotton farmers during the House Agriculture Committee mark up (that begins tomorrow) but voted against health insurance subsidies for low income Americans in 2009.
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On the same day that the House will vote to end health insurance subsidies for low income Americans, the House Agriculture Committee will vote to increase crop insurance subsidies for the largest and most profitable mega farms – and will cut nutrition assistance programs to pay for it.
Read MoreEight members of Congress plan to hold a press conference with anti-hunger groups tomorrow (Tuesday) to protest the $16 billion in cuts to nutrition assistance programs proposed by the leaders of the House Agriculture Committee in their farm bill draft. Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Joe Baca (D-Calif.), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) and Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) will take part.
Read MoreThe farm bill proposed yesterday by House agriculture committee leaders would cut funds for nutrition programs and the environment to help finance new price and revenue guarantees and unlimited insurance subsidies for the largest and most successful farm businesses.
Read MoreThe farm bill proposed yesterday by House Agriculture Committee leaders would cut funds for nutrition programs and the environment to help finance new price and revenue guarantees and increase insurance subsidies for the largest and most successful farm businesses.
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Environmental Working Group’s vice president of government affairs Scott Faber released the following statement on the House agriculture committee leadership’s 2012 farm bill proposal.
Read MoreA story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune documents the ways that unlimited crop insurance subsidies are driving up the costs of farming and contributing to the loss of wetlands and grasslands.
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A new Government Accountability Office report released today finds a host of major problems with federal direct payment farm subsidies.
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Now that the Senate has passed a farm bill that ends direct payments to farmers, the pressure is on for the House to do the same. Trish Choate of the San Angelo Standard-Times uses the 2012 EWG Farm Subsidy Database to explain the federal handout system in Texas, the state that receives the most farm subsidies.
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group’s latest update of the farm subsidy database shows that Iowa grain producers are still reaping big benefits from taxpayers. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that the Hawkeye State “ranks second in the nation in terms of farm subsidies, with 8.7 percent of the total in 2011.”
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group’s latest update of the EWG farm subsidy database shows that farm subsidies continue to benefit the largest and most successful farm businesses and a handful of states and congressional districts.
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group’s latest update of the EWG farm subsidy database shows that farm subsidies continue to benefit the largest and most successful farm businesses and a handful of states and congressional districts.
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group’s latest update of the EWG farm subsidy database shows that 23 members of Congress, or their family members, benefitted from $6,199,807 in taxpayer-funded farm subsidy payments between 1995 and 2011.
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group’s latest update of the EWG farm subsidy database shows that 23 members of Congress, or their family members, benefitted from $6,140,634 in taxpayer-funded farm subsidy payments between 1995 and 2011.
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group will host a press briefing tomorrow in Room 304 in the Cannon House Office Building at 1:00 p.m. (EST) for accredited journalists and congressional staffers to release its latest edition of its highly referenced farm subsidy database. The 2012 database tracks $277.3 billion in commodity, crop insurance, conservation, and disaster subsidies paid between 1995 and 2011.
Read MoreA 60 Minutes profile of Howard Buffett, who will succeed his father, Warren, as a non-executive chairman of a multibillion dollar holding company, reports that he has received $300,000 in farm subsidies over 13 years.
Read MoreTwo newspaper editorials have applauded Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., for his successful efforts to add a conservation compliance amendment to the recently passed Senate farm bill. The proposal simply restores the conservation quid pro quo between taxpayers and farmers as crop insurance subsidies replace traditional farm payments.
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