Midwest
EWG’s mission is to empower people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. In the Midwest we pursue our mission by working to move agriculture in a more sustainable direction. Farmland dominates the landscape and watersheds in the Midwest. The way that land is used and managed has profound effects on our health through the water we drink and the food we eat.
Farming can actually make water cleaner and the environment healthier. Farms doing exactly that are scattered across the Midwest. We bring a unique combination of remote-sensing, big data and landscape analysis to bear to build pressure to change policy to heal the damage done by poor farming practices and to build excitement about how much healthier the environment could be through often simple changes in the way we farm.
Another 12 months is just about in the books. It was full of moments that impacted health and the environment in a variety of ways. From clean water to Kavanaugh, from Pruitt to “poop lagoons,” EWG has been with you every step of the way, keeping you in the know. As the year comes to a close, it’s time to look back at the most popular stories.
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Farm pollution poses a serious threat to drinking water supplies, and too much federal conservation spending has been squandered. Fortunately, the 2018 Farm Bill includes important reforms that will make clean drinking water a priority.
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Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, issued the following statement today following final passage of the farm bill by Congress.
Read MoreScott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, issued the following statement today on Congress’ final farm bill.
Read MoreNearly 20,000 people living in the nation’s 50 largest cities received federal farm subsidies in 2017, according to a new EWG analysis.
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America has a serious problem with nitrate contamination of drinking water – and it is most severe in the small communities that can least afford to fix it.
Read MoreHere are six ways the bill snubs President Trump’s February budget request.
Read MoreEvery federal farm bill is a chance to feed hungry Americans, build healthier diets, support family farmers and reduce farm pollution
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The 1985 federal farm bill created a conservation compact between farmers and taxpayers. In return for generous farm subsidies, farmers agreed to take steps to cut erosion and polluted runoff from their most vulnerable cropland, and to not drain wetlands unless they mitigated the loss.
Read MoreA new report from the Environmental Working Group reveals that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is failing to enforce a key farm bill provision, with dire consequences for drinking water in the Midwest.
Read MoreA new federal farm subsidy program for cotton growers could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
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In December 2015, the 1,500 residents of Erie, Ill., received a warning that the community’s tap water should not be given to babies under 6 months old, or used to mix formula or juice for those infants.
Read MoreThe Raccoon River in central Iowa runs through one of the most intensely farmed regions of the nation. Agriculture is vital to the area’s economy, but polluted runoff from farms poses an acute threat to residents’ tap water – and a daunting challenge to utilities struggling to keep the water clean.
Read MoreWhen Trump appears before the Farm Bureau today, he will be not speaking to America’s farmers – he’ll be preaching to his base.
Photo courtesy of AP Photo
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Once again, Congress is attempting to provide more subsidies to cotton farmers – this time in a bill designed to provide disaster relief to Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico.
Read MoreA new report from the Department of Agriculture confirmed what EWG has been saying for years: Farm subsidies overwhelmingly go to the largest and most successful farm businesses, instead of to struggling family farms that need them the most.
Read MoreBetween 2014 and 2015, three federal farm subsidy programs paid farmers multiple times for the same loss in crop yield or decline in crop price.
Read MoreThrough federal farm programs, American taxpayers are routinely paying thousands of wealthy mega-farms twice for the same "loss," according to a new EWG report.
Read MoreAfter a decline in crop prices in 2014 and 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture boosted farmers' income by more than $13 billion through two newly enacted subsidy programs. But during the same period, another USDA program paid out nearly as much to “compensate” the same farmers for the same decline in prices. In all, this double-dipping cost American taxpayers almost $23.9 billion.
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