Fresh Start Needed on Overripe Farm Bill
If there was one message from yesterday's voting, it's that taxpayers – regardless of party – are worried about the nation's economy and finances.
Articles by Scott Faber
Can Obama Depend on Dependent Farmers?
By now, every American is familiar with Mitt Romney's suggestion that 47 percent of Americans are “victims” who are “dependent” on government assistance.
Put a Pitchfork In It
Speaker Boehner was right to put a fork – a pitchfork – in one of the worst pieces of farm and food legislation in decades.
Farm Subsidy Reform Now!
Tomorrow (Wed., Sept. 12), lobbyists for subsidized agriculture will hold a rally on Capitol Hill to urge Congress to pass a farm bill – any farm bill, even the terrible one produced by the House...
Plowed Under
High crop prices and unlimited crop insurance subsidies contributed to the loss of more than 23 million acres of grassland, shrub land and wetlands between 2008 and 2011, new research by Environmental...
Cynical Extension Cuts Conservation, Extends Direct Payments
The one-year extension of the farm bill likely to come up on the House floor this week would perpetuate funding for the worst aspects of American farm policy and would cut funding for the best.
One-Year Extension or Trojan Horse?
Last fall, House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders tried to insert a “secret farm bill” in the super committee's un-amendable deficit reduction package. They failed. Now some of those same...
House Leadership Puts FARRM Out to Pasture?
Although the future of the farm bill remains unclear, the leadership of the House of Representatives effectively rejected a proposal by the House Agriculture Committee that would have cut nutrition...
Bad Ideas Spring from Drought
Several members of Congress are using the drought to push for a costly and duplicative disaster assistance program and passage of the worst farm bill in decades.
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...
Insurance for Corn, Not Kids?
On the same day that the House will vote to end health insurance subsidies for low income Americans, the House Agriculture Committee will vote to increase crop insurance subsidies for the largest and...
Crop Insurance Subsidy Double Speak
When the government allows oil and gas companies to avoid paying taxes, lawmakers call it a “subsidy.” But when the government pays 62 percent of the cost of obtaining crop insurance, it's called a...
The Case for Crop Insurance Reform
The Senate is expected to start debate this week on adoption of common sense reforms to the federal crop insurance program. This issue could not be more important. Crop insurance has quietly become...
EWG 2013 Farm Bill Platform
As Congress gets to work again in 2013 on renewing the farm bill, it has the opportunity to do more to support family farmers, protect the environment and encourage healthy diets, while ending...
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...
