The Issue
Food
Few choices you make have as powerful an effect on your health and the planet as what you choose to eat. EWG empowers you with the facts on your food.
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The Latest on Food
EWG president Ken Cook issued a ringing call to the good food movement to take a stand on the farm bill in a post this morning titled, “I Call the Vote: A Farm Bill Litmus Test for the Food Movement.”
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Here’s a simple proposition to test whether the food movement can stand up to Big Ag. We’re asking readers who care about providing healthier food to schoolchildren to take a stand by voting on our resolution - A Farm Bill for Healthy Kids:
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture began testing fruits and vegetables for pesticide residues in 1991 after the public became concerned about their potential risks to children.
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Media in the heart of farm country continue to heap scorn on the Senate Agriculture Committee’s proposed farm bill. The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s editorial board had this to say today in piece titled, “Congress Should Rein in Crop Insurance:” The bill slashes at least $23 billion from some farm subsidies and other programs, meaning lawmakers are living up to their pledge to stop making direct payments to farmers for crops they don't grow.
Read MoreThe farm bill draft released by the Senate Agriculture Committee last week (April 20) falls far short of providing farm and food policies Americans want. In a national poll last year, 78 percent said making nutritious and healthy foods more affordable and accessible should be a top priority in the farm bill. They’re going to be sorely disappointed.
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group President Ken Cook and senior food and agriculture analyst Kari Hamerschlag penned an op-ed in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle: "If you believe the government ought to play an aggressive role in the nation's economic life, admit it: You're a liberal. But you're probably not as liberal as the average Republican member of the House Agriculture Committee."
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Craig Cox, Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Environmental Working Group, offered this initial take on the just released Senate Agriculture Committee’s 2012 farm bill. “The 2012 farm bill should do more to support family farmers, protect the environment, promote healthy diets and support working families. Unfortunately, the bill produced today by the Senate Agriculture Committee will do more harm than good. It needlessly sacrifices conservation and feeding assistance programs to finance unlimited insurance subsidies and a new entitlement program for highly profitable farm businesses.
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As Congress gets to work again in 2013 on renewing the farm bill, it has the opportunity to do more to support family farmers, protect the environment and encourage healthy diets, while ending wasteful and unnecessary subsidy payments that flow to profitable growers and the crop insurance industry. Here is the farm bill platform EWG announced early in 2013.
Read MoreKen Cook's keynote talk on organic farming, big agriculture, and the federal farm bill at The Organic Center's 2011 Gala in Anaheim, CA.
Read MoreKen Cook's keynote talk on organic farming, big agriculture, and the federal farm bill at The Organic Center's 2011 Gala in Anaheim, CA.
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Ken Cook's keynote talk on organic farming, big agriculture, and the federal farm bill at The Organic Center's 2011 Gala in Anaheim, CA.
Read MoreKen Cook's keynote talk on organic farming, big agriculture, and the federal farm bill at The Organic Center's 2011 Gala in Anaheim, CA.
Read MoreFor too long, funding provided by the United States’ most far-reaching food and farm legislation -- the farm bill -- has primarily benefited agri-business and industrial-scale commodity farms that aren’t growing food.
Read MoreMore than 1 million Americans are now on record demanding mandatory labeling of genetically engineered (GE) foods so that consumers will know what they’re buying. The Just Label It campaign has submitted the signatures on a petition calling on the Food and Drug Administration to require labeling. Today (Tuesday) is the deadline for the FDA to respond.
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The Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, S.D reported this morning that Sens. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) are making legislative efforts to curb government subsidies distributed inequitably to highly profitable mega farms. An excerpt: Sen. Tim Johnson’s bill to limit federal farm subsidy payments might be the prelude to a far more ambitious effort to impose similar caps on the popular federal crop and revenue insurance programs.
Read MoreThe most troubling news this week was a report from Stephanie Paige Obgurn of High Country News, which took a comprehensive look at the alarming conversion of native prairie grassland to intensive row cropping (subscription required).
Read MoreYesterday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, proposed to cut $30 billion from federal farm subsidy programs, targeting the discredited direct payment program that sends checks out every year regardless of need.
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The chairman of the House Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), is proposing to cut $5 billion a year from the farm subsidies commonly referred to as “direct payments” and an additional $30 billion over 10 years from the heavily subsidized federal crop insurance programs.
Read MoreCritics of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (previously known as food stamps) have been using recent news stories of lottery winners getting SNAP benefits to demonize the program, despite its very low instance of fraud. These attacks come when more than 40 million Americans – half of them children – rely on food stamps to get through a brutal recession.
Read MoreThis week, a handful of big city mayors sent a letter to the House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders urging them to support healthy and local food initiatives.
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