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Almost 49M tons of manure pose health risk for Minnesota’s water
Huge amounts of manure from massive livestock facilities in Minnesota could pollute drinking and recreational water throughout the state, posing a significant health risk.
USDA reverses course, commits to restore purged climate webpages in response to farmers’ lawsuit
Shortly after filing the lawsuit, the plaintiffs moved the court for a preliminary injunction, which sought a court order requiring USDA to restore the removed webpages and preventing USDA from taking...
Using AI, EWG maps 357M poultry on North Carolina’s factory farms
Almost 357 million chickens and turkeys were housed on factory farms in North Carolina in 2022 – a 43 percent increase since 2007 – a new Environmental Working Group investigation has found.
EWG: In California, source of much U.S. produce, almost 1,000 factory farms are near crop fields and their irrigation sources
Almost all of California’s factory farms are very close to water sources that are used to irrigate crops, creating the risk of foodborne illnesses, a new Environmental Working Group investigation...
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In drought-addled Colorado River region, USDA programs give farmers billions for business as usual
Even as the climate emergency drives rising heat and worsening drought in the West, two major Department of Agriculture programs fail to help Colorado River region farmers adapt to climate change, a...
New USDA ‘climate-smart’ list includes many conservation practices with likely no climate benefits
The Agriculture Department recently added farming practices that likely do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions to its “climate-smart” conservation list, misrepresenting the agricultural sector’s...
Advocates urge House Farm Bill leaders to protect and strengthen anti-hunger and climate spending programs, include worker protections
A diverse collection of anti-hunger, environmental, nutrition, public health and worker advocates on Wednesday urged House farm bill leaders to protect and strengthen anti-hunger and climate spending...
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EWG applauds Carper-Braun bill to prioritize climate-smart farming
The following is a statement from Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group senior vice president for government affairs, on the CROP for Farming Act introduced today by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and...
EWG: USDA should prohibit ‘climate-friendly’ claims on beef products
Today the Environmental Working Group petitioned the Department of Agriculture to prohibit beef producers like Tyson Foods’ Brazen Beef from claiming their products are “climate-friendly” and to...
EWG analysis: As the climate emergency heats up the Southwest, crop insurance payouts for heat surge
Hotter weather linked to climate change drove up crop insurance costs for heat-related crop damage and losses in the Southwest, according to a new Environmental Working Group analysis of federal data...
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 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...
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...
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 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 analysis: As climate crisis accelerated, 10 Mississippi River basin counties raked in $3 billion in crop insurance payouts
Ten counties in the Mississippi River basin received over $3 billion in crop insurance payments between 2001 and 2020, much of it for losses caused by extreme weather tied to the climate crisis...
EWG applauds USDA climate pilot projects, calls for Senate to pass Build Back Better Act
WASHINGTON – The Environmental Working Group today applauded the Department of Agriculture for dedicating $1 billion to “climate smart” pilot projects designed to measure and verify practices that may...
EWG analysis: Climate crisis has already cost taxpayers billions in crop insurance payouts to farmers
Farmers received more than $143.5 billion in federal crop insurance payouts from 1995 through 2020, much of it subsidized by taxpayer dollars and most of it linked to extreme weather exacerbated by...
Build Back Better bill includes $27 billion for historic climate-focused conservation efforts
The Environmental Working Group today applauds House and Senate leaders for including $27 billion in the budget reconciliation bill, to tackle a growing backlog of farmers who need help addressing the...