Washington DC (June 13, 2007) ¨The National Family Farm Coalition believes the
new database released yesterday by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) misses the mark
in its critique and analysis of the current broken farm subsidy system. We agree that
current farm and food policy is derailing our food system with the continuous loss of
diversified family farms, but EWG's database showing wealthy farmers as the main
beneficiaries of our farm policy overlooks the real winners of the subsidy system: food
processors, multinational grain traders, and industrial livestock operations.

EWG fails to acknowledge why subsidies are necessary in the first place: to address
perpetually low commodity prices below the cost of production. George Naylor,
president of NFFC and a corn and soybean farmer from Iowa, said, "Large subsidy
payments reflect a system that encourages production to achieve cheap commodity prices
which benefits the buyers of these commodities. That is what needs to change. Corporate
agribusiness interests vs family farmers seems not to matter to EWG. EWG tries to make
farm programs fit a description of welfare programs, even if it's Tyson and Cargill who
are the real welfare cases."

Research by Tufts University has shown that from 1997 to 2005, the four largest broiler
chicken companies paid $5 billion less than the cost of production for their feed. The four
largest hog companies (producing 50% of U.S. hogs) paid $3 billion less than the cost of
production for their feed. These industrial operations are also some of the most egregious
environmental polluters, yet EWG, as an environmental organization, fails to recognize
them as the true beneficiaries of our subsidy policies.

Bill Christison, a soybean and livestock farmer from Missouri, said, "Farmers don't want
taxpayer subsidies. We want a fair price from the marketplace. We need fair prices and
price stability. What we don¡¯t need are these Farmers Risk Management Accounts or
privatized revenue insurance that do nothing to address the underlying failures of the
current system."

NFFC's Food from Family Farms Act advocates replacing the current ineffective subsidy
programs with a floor price for commodities in conjunction with emergency food, crop,
acreage, and strategic energy reserves. We need a farm bill that actually supports family
farmers, not one that dismantles our current system without addressing the systemic
causes of who benefits from our current farm and food policies.