Catch up on the latest news and analysis from EWG’s team of experts.
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Crop Insurance: Bad for Taxpayers, Bad for the Environment
Unlimited crop insurance subsidies lead growers to make planting decisions that are bad for the environment, two of the nation's most respected agricultural economists conclude in a newly published...
The Audacity of Scope
Late Wednesday night, July 11, the House Agriculture Committee added an amendment by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to the farm bill that would severely limit states' authority to regulate conditions or...
Top Ten Reasons to Reject the House Farm Bill
The 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...
Really?
The farm bill proposed yesterday by House Agriculture Committee leaders would cut funds for nutrition programs and the environment to help finance new price and revenue guarantees and increase...
11 Champions
Everyone who eats should take a moment to thank 11 senators who proposed farm bill amendments designed to ensure that our farm and food policies help more farmers, the environment and the hungry at...
Senate Puts Crop Insurance Companies Ahead of Needy Children
EWG issued the following statement by Scott Faber, Vice President for Government Affairs, on the Senate's failure to pass Senator Gillibrand's amendment to reduce subsidies to crop insurance companies...
EWG Wants You to Eat your Fruits and Vegetables
In June 1993, the Environmental Working Group released a report titled “Pesticides in Children's Food.” In the very first line of the forward to that study, EWG President Ken Cook had this advice for...
Chemical Agriculture Goes to the Mattresses
The 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.
Unlimited Subsidies, High Prices Threaten “Prairie Potholes”
High crop prices combined with unlimited insurance subsidies are contributing to the rapid loss of wetlands and prairie grasslands in the “prairie pothole” region of North and South Dakota, Montana...
Protecting Water at the Source
One of the big challenges facing the globe in the next century will be access to clean water. In America, federal agriculture policies are putting drinking water used by millions of people at risk...
2012 Farm Bill: Conservation and the Environment
America's water, soil and wildlife habitat have never been under greater assault from the ravages of modern industrial agriculture. And since industrial crop production is exempt from most federal...
Honor the Conservation Compact
Some commitments should be honored. In exchange for farm subsidies, farmers have for decades committed to adopt land management practices that reduce the runoff from their fields – a provision of the...
Aldo Leopold: His Legacy Needed Now More Than Ever
Aldo Leopold was perhaps the most influential conservationist of the 20th century. He died nearly 65 years ago, yet his life's work continues to inspire us to love and respect our land, water and...
Follow The Food: Ensuring Greater Transparency in our Food Supply
As the 2012 food and farm policy fights heat up, entrepreneurs have some lessons for Washington. These were on full display at a recent TEDx Manhattan conference, where the innovative business leaders...
The Farm Bureau Bogeyman
When the farm bill fight gets rolling again in Congress, one question will be at the heart of the debate: Is it fair to ask farmers to take a few basic steps to protect soil and clean up waterways in...
Local Food and The Farm Bill: Small Investments, Big Returns
For too long, funding provided by the United States' most far-reaching food and farm legislation has primarily benefited agri-business and large scale industrial-scale commodity farms that aren't...
Farm Subsidy Research and Analysis
Since 1995 U.S. taxpayers have sent $194 billion in subsidies to farmers including $5 billion per year in fixed direct payments paid regardless of need or crop price. Below is a list of recent EWG...
The Farm Bill is a Climate Bill
Climate Change activists should be concerned about proposed cuts to farm bill conservation programs, which would be the carbon emissions equivalent of adding 2 million cars a year to America's roads...
Top Ten Food and Farm Stories of 2011
Advocates of healthy food and farm policy reform have had a lot of success in 2011.
Tunnel Vision
Gulf state taxpayers help fund the creation of agriculture pollution they ultimately deal with. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched a new initiative to pay Gulf Coast farm businesses in...