Me on @npr.org's Morning Edition last week talking about the new farm bailout: "Essentially, the President is sending taxpayer money to farmers to paper over the problems that his own tariffs have caused." www.npr.org/2025/12/11/n...

Me in the @startribune.com today: "The main problem with this program is that it’s like all of the other farm subsidy programs. It’s sending money to the largest farms, and it’s not going to help people who are really struggling with this economic uncertainty.” www.startribune.com/what-to-know...

Our statement at @ewgofficial.bsky.social on USDA's new Regenerative Agriculture Initiative announced today. It's a good first step in prioritizing EQIP and CSP funding for practices that improve GHG mitigation and climate resilience. But it's also not any new funding. www.ewg.org/news-insight...

The new farm bailout is clearly being paid for with taxpayer money through the Commodity Credit Corporation. Trump saying that the money is coming from tariffs is not true. As taxpayers, we're paying more $ for goods due to tariffs, and more $ for this bailout. www.usda.gov/about-usda/n...

Me on the new $11B farm bailout: “These bailouts are a direct result of the president’s own trade war with China, which greatly downsized our largest soybean market and is now forcing taxpayers to prop up the biggest players, not the farmers who need help the most." www.ewg.org/news-insight...

Further proof that the Trump admin does not, and has never, actually cared about MAHA. farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2025/12/trum...

This first episode is really great, required watching for anyone who cares about water quality in the Corn Belt. Looking forward to the next episode!

It was great talking with @amesalex.bsky.social for his exceptional story with @floodlightnews.org on the environmental and climate impacts of corn production. They mentioned my report with @albine14.bsky.social for @ewgofficial.bsky.social about continuous corn. floodlightnews.org/corn-ethanol...

Definitely not good news. www.cnn.com/2025/11/21/h...

Some pretty serious fraud claims about the insurance division of Farm Bureau Financial www.newsfromthestates.com/article/laws...

New today: at @ewgofficial.bsky.social, we just released our updated Conservation Database. We now have conservation funding by practice for multiple different conservation programs, down to the county level for most programs. Found over $31B went to farmers 2017-2024. www.ewg.org/news-insight...

Big news- at @ewgofficial.bsky.social, we have reached a settlement in our lawsuit with Tyson Foods. Under the settlement, Tyson will stop making “net zero” and other climate claims for five years, including “climate-smart beef”. www.ewg.org/news-insight...

My readers are excited about the possibility of Chris Jones @theswinerepublic.bsky.social running for Iowa secretary of agriculture. ICYMI, highlights from his recent remarks in Des Moines and my interview with him afterwards: laurabelin.substack.com/p/we-deserve...

One thing that I was surprised to see in the deal to end the govt shutdown and that is actually a good thing- the bill requires the USDA to continue the ag census, including measuring livestock facilities/animal counts by county, which had been cut by previous admin. www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/...

That Trump "trade truce" with China is really working out well for US farmers... farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2025/11/chin...

Unsurprisingly, the deal to open the govt has a lot of bad parts. Extremely disappointing to see it cut funding for USDA Climate Hubs. I have used a lot of their research in my work when recommending the best conservation practices to improve farm #climate resilience. www.eenews.net/articles/env...

If I’m reading the senate deal correctly, they’re planning to get rid of payment limits on USDA conservation programs like EQIP. When thousands of farmers get turned away from EQIP each year, this change would funnel even more federal money to the biggest farms while turning away small farms.

BREAKING: The Trump administration asked an appeals court on Friday to immediately halt a judge's recent ruling that would require the government to pay food stamps in full. (That's supposed to happen by today.) In short, it could again jeopardize critical aid to millions of poor families. Story TK.

The USDA has transferred billions of dollars to a slush fund at the Office of the Secretary for the farmer trade bailout. Shockingly, the money seems to be coming from the Conservation Reserve Program and Dairy Margin Protection Program, and even potentially loans. www.govexec.com/management/2...

Are we living in a post Farm Bill world? We try to answer this question and more in our latest Q&A.

Every story on this topic needs to mention the cost of daycare in the U.S. In the Twin Cities, spending $25k a year on infant/toddler care at a daycare center is common. And it's even more expensive in cities on East/West coasts. Of course people are having less kids. www.npr.org/2025/10/27/n...

Secretary Rollins’ claim that the Trump Administration is unable to deliver November SNAP benefits during a shutdown is unequivocally false. The Administration is legally required to use contingency reserves to fund benefits for the 1 in 8 Americans who need SNAP to afford their grocery bill.

It was a great getting to talk about our work at the Reducetarian Foundation Summit this past weekend in Atlanta. For 8 years @ewgofficial.bsky.social has been using satellite/aerial imagery to locate factory farms on the landscape to help our fight for clean water and healthy communities.

Lots of people have opinions on Trump's decision to increase Argentine beef imports. Argentina only accounts for 2.2% of U.S. beef imports currently, so quadrupling their imports as proposed would make them still only a small share of the total U.S. beef supply. www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/...

Trump is certainly showing who he is to farmers and ranchers. Of course, ranchers don't set consumer prices - that's controlled by the big 4 companies (JBS/Tyson/Cargill/Natl Beef) that dominate the beef sector, several just settle price-fixing cases. www.cnbc.com/2025/10/22/t...

"Mr. Trump has committed to a destructive mix of tariffs, bailouts, biofuels mandates and immigration crackdowns that will make consumers pay more for food and saddle taxpayers with more debt. It’s a bizarre combination of crony capitalism and agricultural socialism." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/o...

People have talked about ag biologicals being silver bullets for a long time. We know by now that they are not. But potentially some hope on reducing nitrogen pollution/nitrous oxide emissions in the future. ambrook.com/offrange/tec...

As an avid @mprnews.org listener, it was extremely exciting to talk with @paulhuttnerweather.bsky.social for Climate Cast this week! We talked about my recent report for @ewgofficial.bsky.social on continuous corn, and its associated nitrous oxide emissions www.mprnews.org/episode/2025...

This week on Climate Cast from @mprnews.org, EWG's @anneschech.bsky.social tells us why a corn-corn crop rotation is bad for the environment. The short of it is that corn requires a lot of fertilizer, and that fertilizer requires a lot of energy to make. one.npr.org/i/fis-414685...

Farm Action is sending a petition to Ag Secretary Rollins to undo the cuts to USDA's local food programs and ensure that USDA sends potential bailout funding to small farmers who grow actual food, not just large commodity growers. Anyone can sign the petition here: farmaction.us/tell-secreta...

An overview. @profsecchi.bsky.social and @anneschech.bsky.social also write about this and point out the absurdity of USDA crowing about 2M farms to justify welfare programs. Reality: there is high concentration and only 1.9M "farms" and shrinking. www.ers.usda.gov/publications...

Me in a new @insideclimatenews.org article talking about our new @ewgofficial.bsky.social report: "Nitrous oxide is powerful. It lasts a long time. But it’s also something that these types of conservation practices can really have an impact on reducing." insideclimatenews.org/news/0810202...

Another EWG 🎯, read the 🧵 “the top 4 practices that would generate the largest reductions in GHG emissions on continuous corn […] are: riparian forest buffers, tree or shrub establishment, hedgerow planting & windbreak establishment” Note how these are all PERMANENT practices,unlike cover crops.

Great work from the folks ag EWG! From thr report... "We found that adopting the four best conservation practices on just 1% of continuous corn acres each in the four states would reduce total greenhouse gas emissions at an amount that would be like taking over 850,000 cars off the road."

New @ewgofficial.bsky.social analysis released today from me and @albine14.bsky.social. We found that just under 15 million cropland acres across Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin are used for continuous corn, representing 20% of the total harvested cropland. 1/4 www.ewg.org/research/fer...

"The findings suggest that only about a quarter of climate articles in 11 major US outlets, including the Guardian, mention food and agriculture as a cause. And of the 940 articles analyzed, only 36 – or 3.8% – mentioned animal agriculture or meat production." www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Trump's USDA is Engaging in Partisan Politics. That is a Threat to us All, and Could/Should Be Illegal.

I think a lot of us haven't known what we can do about all of this *waves hand* in 2025. But one thing that makes me feel better is knowing that I'm not on the wrong side of history. I'll keep talking about what the government is doing (and not doing) to hurt the environment, climate, public health.

Just a staggering transfer of wealth from taxpayers to mostly large commodity farms. "Since 2018, USDA and/or Congress have paid nearly $176 billion in inflation-adjusted economic assistance to farmers." farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2025/09/hist...

New research from @farmdocdaily.bsky.social shows that public support for #farmsubsidies has decreased, while it has increased for food assistance. And yet the One Big Beautiful Bill Act increased farm subsidy money while decreasing food assistance. farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2025/09/do-c...

Me: “I like to say we’re in this gold-rush era of regenerative certifications and claims, because everyone, essentially, is rushing to label their food products, to label conservation practices—anything a farm is doing—as regenerative.” @insideclimatenews.org insideclimatenews.org/news/2209202...

New @ewgofficial.bsky.social piece published today, exposing different "regenerative" food certifications. We found that USDA organic, “Regenerative Organic”, and "Demeter" certifications were the best guarantee a food has been produced with regenerative practices. 1/2 www.ewg.org/news-insight...

It was a great experience talking with people at #farmaid40 about @ewgofficial.bsky.social's Meat and Dairy Label Decoder as well as our work on nitrous oxide emissions from big ag this weekend! And getting to see some of the performers was unreal. @farmaid.org

One last reminder to come visit us from @ewgofficial.bsky.social at our booth at the Farm Aid 40 HOMEGROWN Village this Saturday! We will be talking about decoding meat and dairy food labels, and big ag's impact on the environment, climate and public health. @farmaid.org #FarmAid40

Trump should be getting rid of tariffs instead of potentially making taxpayers, who are also struggling in this economy, pay billions of dollars in another farm bailout. Subsidies mostly go to largest farms, so aid would not help struggling small farms. farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2025/09/usda...

Good explainer piece in @nytimes.com about the clash between MAHA and the GOP on pesticides. Is it a clash that most of us predicted in January? Yes. But it will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes of it. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/c...

I got to be a contributor on a new report from the McKnight Foundation that was released yesterday. It's a first of its kind look at the sources of nitrous oxide emissions and how farmers, policymakers and fertilizer manufacturers can lead the way in reducing emissions. www.mcknight.org/n2oaction/

If anyone is coming to Farm Aid 40 in Minneapolis next week, come visit us! Me and my @ewgofficial.bsky.social colleagues will be hosting an activation in the Homegrown Village to talk about food labels, and the environmental and climate harms from big ag. www.farmaid.org/festival/the...

Me in a new @civileats.com story by @megwilcox.bsky.social: “Crop insurance is getting more expensive because of climate change, [yet] spending more money on climate resilience practices could lower [those] costs... We’re spending money for the wrong things." civileats.com/2025/09/10/a...

Taxpayers foot 63% of crop insurance payouts & climate change is driving up costs. Far less funding goes to conservation practices which could help lower those costs. @anneschech.bsky.social @ewg-official.bsky.social @nsac-sustainableag.bsky.social @civileats.com civileats.com/2025/09/10/a...