Farming

The food we produce and the way we produce it has profound effects—good or bad—on our health, quality of life and the environment. On these pages you will learn what EWG is doing to protect your health and environment while ensuring a sustainable future for America’s working farms and ranches.
Conservation

Farmers can do more than producing food and fiber. They can also produce clean air, clean water, and abundant habitat for wildlife. But farm policies are doing too little to reward good stewardship and too much to underwrite unsustainable crop and animal production by the largest and most successful farm businesses.
Subsidies

EWG’s renowned farm subsidy database reveals that taxpayer support goes mostly to large, profitable operations, not to sustainable family farms that truly need the help. We’re working to change a badly broken system.
Food

Food should be good for you. But some foods aren’t. Pesticides are sprayed on millions of acres every year and some of them end up on your food. Our broken farm subsidy system encourages over production of the wrong food. EWG is pushing for better policy and more sustainable ways of farming that produce healthy food in a healthy environment.
Water

Nothing is more important to your health and quality of life than safe drinking water and clean streams and lakes. Across the country, pollution from farms is one of the primary reasons water is no longer clean or safe. Agriculture is the leading source of pollution of rivers and streams surveyed by U.S. government experts, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Thankfully, if we make simple changes in the way we farm, we can take a big step toward clean water.

Our Most Recent Stories

EWG keeps you up to date with analysis of the latest news, interviews with experts and more.

State by State EQIP Conservation Cuts

Friday, January 2, 2009

Congress's proposed "increase" in Environmental Quality Incentives Program funding is really a cut of $285 million from what was promised in the 2008 farm bill. Without proper conservation funding, few resources are available to mitigate the environmental damage caused by modern commodity crop agriculture.

Ethanol-Gasoline Fuel Blends May Cause Human Health Risks and Engine Issues

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Growth Energy, a consortium of ethanol producers, petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to allow 50% more ethanol in gasoline than is currently permitted in a move designed to expand the market for corn ethanol. EWG's review of available scientific data finds that such an increase in fuel ethanol content may involve multiple human health and safety hazards, a risk of increased air pollution and potential engine damage.

EWG Comments on the California Air Resources Board Climate Change Proposed Scoping Plan

Thursday, December 11, 2008

With these comments, EWG directs the California Air Resources Board’s attention to deficiencies in the Climate Change Proposed Scoping Plan with respect to agriculture. At present, the Plan undervalues both the current role of agriculture in global warming emissions and the capacity of the sector to reduce these emissions.

Congress Poised To Cut Conservation Funds That Aided Farm Bill’s Passage

Monday, September 8, 2008

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 programs. Without proper conservation funding, few resources are available to mitigate the environmental damage caused by modern commodity crop agriculture.

The Unintended Environmental Impacts of the Renewable Fuels Standard

Friday, August 29, 2008

U.S. farmers are planting fence-row-to-fence-row to produce enough corn to supply ethanol plants and at the same time meet burgeoning demand for food and feed crops. The intensification of corn production—spurred in large part by exploding ethanol production—threatens to exacerbate global warming and harm water quality, water supply, and wildlife habitat. Read the Report

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EWG keeps you up to date with analysis of the latest news, interviews with experts and more.

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