This ought to be simple. While farm income is at record levels, 47 million Americans are struggling with hunger and millions of acres of wetland and prairie are being lost forever. So, naturally, the farm bill proposals being debated this week would cut subsidies for the largest and most successful farms and provide more…
Americans have never been more interested in their food and how it’s grown. And the disturbing reality is that the way most of our food is grown today hurts families, threatens future generations of farmers and squanders our natural heritage. Across the nation, food and drinking water is being polluted with fertilizers and pesticides, antibiotics are…
Congressman Fincher: Stop stealing our money Over the weekend, the 2nd most heavily subsidized farmer in Congress – and one of the largest subsidy recipients in Tennessee history – said Washington should not “steal” from taxpayers to support food assistance like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – better known as food stamps. At an…
We’ve all heard of pink slime. Now, there’s green slime too. Unregulated pollution from farm fields is triggering slimy green blooms of algae around the globe, according to National Geographic. Its story documents how fertilizers that wash off farm fields feed massive growth of algae, setting off chemical chain reactions that create low-oxygen “dead zones” where fish…
Last week, the Environmental Working Group released a report analyzing antibiotic resistance of bacteria detected in supermarket meat. We unearthed data buried deep in the annual report of theNational Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, a federal food safety effort run by the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of Agriculture. This…
Today, on the eve of farm bill consideration by the Senate Committee on Agriculture, EWG is launching an unprecedented campaign to remind Congress that our land, our food, our families, and our farms are all worth protecting. The goal of our campaign is simple: to persuade Congress to require basic environmental protections in exchange for…
A smart man learns from his mistakes, Terry Ingram likes to say, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. “I’ll never claim to be a wise man, but I’m at least a smart man. Once you experience what it’s like to farm organic, your eyes open to how abundant nature is. I…
By Dawn Undurraga There’s nothing to make you feel like a dope like a bunch of experts telling you you’re wasting your money by buying organic food. And after the recent review of the issue by Stanford University scientists made national headlines – with CBS Newsdeclaring that “organic food is hardly healthier” – I even got tough questions…
By Dawn Undurraga A new guide shows shoppers how to manage their grocery costs while reducing their exposure to toxic chemicals and rediscovering the savory pleasures of nutritious stews, soups and salads. Walk into any corner store and you’re likely to find you can get two glazed donuts for less than a conventional apple – if you…
By Alex Formuzis A diet heavy in produce and light in processed foods, red meat and soda could well help you live a longer, healthier life. Still, we live in the real world. Some of us enjoy the occasional cheeseburger and fries at lunch or bag of potato chips with a beer on Friday –…
Our mission is to highlight the importance of food policy and to promote policies that support healthy diets, reduce hunger at home and abroad, improve food access and affordability, uphold the rights and dignity of food and farm workers, increase transparency, improve public health, reduce the risk of food-borne illness, support local and regional food systems, treat farm animals humanely and reduce the environmental impact of farming and food production. Food Policy Action promotes positive policies through education and publication of the National Food Policy Scorecard.
