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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...
Biden EPA moves closer to final ban of brain-damaging pesticide
The Environmental Protection Agency today announced it is taking several final steps required to officially ban any further agricultural uses of the neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos, rejecting all...
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...
32M pounds of toxic pesticides used in Ventura County, threatening farmworkers, families and more
More than 32 million pounds of toxic pesticides, including many linked to cancer and respiratory and developmental problems, have been used on Ventura County farm fields from 2015 to 2020, including...
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...
Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ found in eggs, spotlighting need for action
Chicken eggs from homesteads and farms near Fairfield, Maine, are contaminated with the toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, new testing finds, spotlighting the need for swift regulatory action to...
