The Issue
Local & Sustainable
EWG works to promote policies and grow markets that support local, regional, sustainable and organic food systems in order to expand opportunities for farmers, improve access to healthier food and protect the environment.
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The Latest on Local & Sustainable
The departure of Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “leaves a gaping hole in the Obama administration's leadership on food and agriculture policy,” Environmental Working Group’s president Ken Cook said today.
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The top environmental health stories of 2012 were all about everyday hazards that are right in our backyards. They have to do with the unintended consequences of chemical pollution that could harm the health of our families, our neighbors, our towns - our nation.
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It’s a new day for those who have felt poorly served by California’s chief food and agriculture agency.
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With the elections finally behind us, Congress has returned to Washington to try to wrap up a slew of unfinished business. Among other things, lawmakers are grappling with how to revive the expired farm bill, while at the same time they must somehow address the looming “fiscal cliff” of higher taxes and crippling budget cuts that could drive the economy back into recession.
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With only five legislative weeks left, Congress must vote to extend the farm bill, but it must do it in a way that reflects the nation’s spending priorities, supports family farmers and protects the environment.
Read MoreCompared to the billions that the government pays to subsidize industrial-scale growers of commodity crops such as corn, rice and soybeans, federal farm bill spending to promote cultivation and marketing of healthy fruits, nuts and vegetables is tiny. The Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG) program is one of the more important programs to support these healthy foods, known also as “specialty crops”.
Read MoreThe federal Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG) program, though tiny compared to the billions that flow to growers of commodity crops such as corn and soy, is one of the government’s most important efforts to promote cultivation and sale of fruits, nuts and vegetables.
Read MoreAn important farm bill program that provides valuable support for California’s growers and consumers of healthy fruits, vegetables and nuts would deliver greater all-around benefits if state officials address shortcomings in the process of awarding the federally-funded grants, an analysis by the Environmental Working Group shows.
Read MoreThere’s nothing to make you feel like a dope like a bunch of experts telling you you’re wasting your money by buying organic food. And after the recent review of the issue by Stanford University scientists made national headlines – with CBS Newsdeclaring that “organic food is hardly healthier” – I even got tough questions at home about why I’m spending our much-in-demand money on organics.
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As a kid, I was taught that a decent meal has carbs, veggies and meat. Tacos and burgers were my favorites. I have absolutely no interest in becoming a vegetarian.
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.
Read MoreMore 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.”
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 MoreEWG has released the eighth edition of its Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce™ with updated information on 45 popular fruits and vegetables and their total pesticide loads. EWG highlights the worst offenders with its new Dirty Dozen Plus™ list and the cleanest conventional produce with its list of the Clean Fifteen™.
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National leaders in food and farm policy have taken steps to form a new nonprofit organization that for the first time will hold lawmakers in Congress accountable for their votes on a broad range of issues, including food safety, farm subsidies, nutrition assistance, farm animal welfare, fisheries management, organic and local food, farm and food worker justice, and the impacts of food and farm policies on the environment.
Read MoreSeventy leading chefs, authors, food policy experts, nutritionists, CEOs, and environment and health organizations sent an open letter to Members of Congress today urging lawmakers to reinvest federal farm and crop insurance subsidy dollars into programs that feed the hungry, protect the environment and promote the consumption of local, organic and healthy food.
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Now is our chance to turn the farm bill into a healthier food bill, but we need you to stand with us.
Read MoreFruit and vegetable growers have historically been left out of agriculture policy, even though they provide foods that are vital for improving America’s nutrition and reducing the costly toll of diet-related diseases. The 2008 farm bill began to correct this misguided policy by providing modest but important gains for programs that promote the production, research and marketing of fruits, nuts and vegetables, known also as “specialty crops.”
Read MoreAn Environmental Working Group analysis highlights the skewed priorities and gross inequities in federal spending under the nation’s most far-reaching food and farm legislation.
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