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Farm subsidies, not anti-hunger programs, should be focus of budget cuts
Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office released “baseline” projections for mandatory Department of Agriculture farm and food programs in the 2023 Farm Bill, which members of Congress will use to...
EWG’s updated Farm Subsidy Database reveals $3.1B USDA transparency problem
A new Environmental Working Group analysis of its latest Farm Subsidy Database update shows the Department of Agriculture has become less transparent with disclosing federal farm subsidy payments...
New EWG research finds many North Carolina factory farms are at risk of flooding
A new Environmental Working Group geospatial analysis finds over 2 percent of North Carolina’s 7,352 swine and poultry factory farms are in or just outside floodplains. When these farms flood, they...
Internal papers show Syngenta hid risks of widely used pesticide from public, regulators for decades
A trove of internal documents obtained and published by The New Lede show Swiss chemical giant Syngenta knew in the 1960s and 1970s that the widely used weedkiller paraquat could build up in human...
EWG applauds Maine lawmakers in Congress for helping farmers tackle ‘forever chemicals’
The Environmental Working Group applauds Maine’s congressional delegation for introducing bipartisan bills that would support American farmers whose crops and livestock have been contaminated by the...
EWG report: As climate crisis worsens, a wetter Midwest is linked to climbing crop insurance costs
As precipitation increased in recent years across the Midwest, so did crop insurance costs for wetter weather linked to the rapidly accelerating climate catastrophe, finds a new Environmental Working...
EWG investigation: Of $7.4B spent on two major USDA conservation programs, very little has flowed to ‘climate-smart’ farming
Two of the Department of Agriculture’s principal conservation programs paid out almost $7.4 billion to farmers between 2017 and 2020, but only a small part went to practices the USDA itself has...
Study: Communities of color at greatest risk of pesticide exposure in Ventura County, Calif.
In California’s Ventura County, increased agricultural pesticide use and related toxicity risks for humans occur the most in areas with more people of color and limited resources, according to a new...
For farmers, historic $20 billion climate spending could save more than the planet
Historic $20 billion spending, in the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, to reduce greenhouse gases from agriculture could not only save the planet, it might also help preserve the good will most...
Study estimates environmental harms of meat consumption, 57,000 packaged foods
A new study by University of Oxford researchers offers a comprehensive look at the potential environmental damage associated with meat production and more than 57,000 multi-ingredient packaged foods...
Senate bill to make historic climate-focused conservation investments
The Environmental Working Group today applauds Senate leaders for including more than $20 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act to tackle a growing backlog of requests from farmers seeking U.S...
EWG: 90 percent of 2,500 Western Lake Erie Basin animal feeding operations are flying under the radar
A new Environmental Working Group analysis for the first time identifies and maps more than 2,500 animal feeding operations in, and at the edge of, the Western Lake Erie Basin – revealing 90 percent...
Trump EPA ignored own guidelines by dismissing cancer risks for widely used pesticide, Inspector General finds
During the Trump administration, Environmental Protection Agency officials downgraded the agency’s long-held position that a widely used pesticide could give people cancer, the EPA’s internal watchdog...
Supreme Court hobbles EPA’s ability to regulate power plant emissions, sets precedent to cripple agency’s future
A ruling today by the U.S. Supreme Court will hamstring the federal government’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that is necessary to tackle the existential threat of the...
EWG analysis: From 2018 to 2020, farmers reaped $91.6B in taxpayer-funded USDA subsidies
Between 2018 and 2020, Agriculture Department programs paid commodity farmers $91.6 billion for crop price decreases and other challenges, with similar program qualifications allowing some farmers to...
EWG applauds USDA organic transition program
WASHINGTON – The Environmental Working Group today applauds Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack for announcing a new program to help farmers and ranchers make the transition to organic farming...
EWG analysis: In the Mississippi River region, the climate crisis helped run up a $39.5B taxpayer bill for crop insurance premiums
Crop insurance premium subsidies in the Mississippi River region cost taxpayers almost $39.5 billion between 2001 and 2020, a new EWG analysis of Department of Agriculture data finds.
EPA to suspend all uses of widely used weedkiller over risks to fetus, thyroid function
The Environmental Protection Agency intends to suspend all future uses of a toxic weedkiller that scientific research has shown to cause harm to the developing fetus and problems associated with...
EWG speech at AEI on climate and agriculture
EWG Senior Vice President for Government Affairs Scott Faber delivered the following remarks before the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, April 12, 2022.
EWG: In the Mississippi River region, retiring frequently flooded fields could save billions in crop insurance payouts
Farmers received almost $1.5 billion in federal crop insurance payments from 2001 to 2020 for flood-related crop losses in the Mississippi River Critical Conservation Area, a region increasingly...
