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.

Unlimited 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.

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."

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.

Are smaller, upstream water bodies such as intermittent streams covered by the federal Clean Water Act? This is not an insignificant question: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined that 117 million Americans depend to some extent on these sources for their drinking water.

An 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.

Eight 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.

The 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.

Earlier this summer, advocates for the fruit and vegetable industry touted their “commitment to increasing fresh fruit and vegetable consumption for tens of thousands of students.”