Research

The so-called “prevented planting” component of the federal crop insurance program is wasting billions of dollars while encouraging growers to plow up wildlife-sustaining wetlands in the iconic...

Defenders of genetically engineered crops regularly claim that these varieties cut erosion by encouraging farmers to use tillage practices that enhance soil conservation.

Congress could dramatically cut spending on the federal crop insurance program without sacrificing anything other than the political objective of propping up a crop insurance industry that only exists...

The federal government paid out $11.3 million in taxpayer-funded farm subsidies to 50 billionaires or farm businesses in which they had an interest between 1995 and 2012, and changes to the farm bill...

Supporters of the House and Senate versions of the stalled farm bill are arguing that they represent historic reform because both would replace Direct Payments with a suite of new subsidies designed...

There were two reasons that Environmental Working Group commissioned agricultural economist Bruce Babcock of Iowa State University to analyze how the heavily subsidized federal crop insurance program...

Starting in the 1930s, U.S. farm programs focused on reducing crop surpluses and sending checks to farmers when crop prices fell.

High crop prices and unlimited crop insurance subsidies contributed to the loss of more than 23 million acres of grassland, shrub land and wetlands between 2008 and 2011, wiping out habitat that...

View and Download the report here: Impact of Scaling Back Crop Insurance Premium Subsidies

Fruit 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...

View and Download the report here: Giving it Away Free A simple, free program to insure farmers against actual crop losses at full market price would be cheaper and fairer than today's hopelessly...

America's farmers need a safety net, but so do the rich soil and clean water that sustain not just agriculture but the entire fabric of American society.

Direct payment farm subsidies are in the budget crosshairs and may at long last be eliminated as Congress works to reduce the federal deficit. These long-discredited subsidies send checks out year...

Sorting out the details of USDA's farm subsidy data and Congressional disclosure forms is a difficult process. Records don't always match up; details appear one place but not another. And USDA, taking...

Although cotton and rice constitute a tiny portion of California's nation-leading farm production, those two crops – rather than the state's vast harvest of fruits and vegetables – continue to get the...

U.S. taxpayers doled out more than $6.4 billion in subsidies to the commercial fishing industry between 1996 and 2004, possibly accelerating the ongoing collapse of fish stocks worldwide and adding to...

When Congress passed the 2008 farm bill on June 18, 2008, it promised to increase funding for the most important and popular program in farm country to prevent water pollution and tackle other...

Behind the thin green gloss Congressional leaders spread across the subsidy-laden 2008 farm bill, key Democratic lawmakers are hacking away at promises to expand conservation and other environmental...

Plans for a permanent trust fund to compensate farmers and ranchers for weather-related losses will send even more agricultural subsidies to the very regions that already receive the lion's share...

Due to lax standards and implementation problems, the conservation compliance program is missing cost-effective opportunities to make further, substantial reductions in soil erosion on U.S. cropland.

The $6.55 billion omnibus measure (The Emergency Farm Relief Act of 2006, S. 3855)provides hundreds of millions of dollars for projects and programs completely unrelated to crop and livestock losses...

A new Environmental Working Group analysis identifies and posts online more than 1.2 million prospective recipients of a proposed $1.5 billion crop subsidy bonus contained in HR 4939, The Emergency...

Some of America's richest agribusinesses are double dipping from U.S. taxpayers' pockets at a rate of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) computer...

For decades taxpayers have provided subsidized water to California farmers at rates far below fair market value. When the amount of cheap water delivered to farmers was reduced during the severe...