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News Release | NCPIRG Education Fund | Budget, Food

Ag Subsidies Pay for 21 Twinkies per Taxpayer, But Only Half of an Apple Apiece

Federal subsidies for commodity crops are subsidizing junk food additives like high fructose corn syrup, enough to pay for 21 Twinkies per taxpayer every year, according to NCPIRG’s new report, Apples to Twinkies 2012. Meanwhile, limited subsidies for fresh fruits and vegetables would buy one half of an apple per taxpayer.

Report | NCPIRG Education Fund | Budget, Food

Apples to Twinkies 2012

In this report, we find that in 2011, over $1.28 billion in taxpayer subsidies went to junk food ingredients, bringing the total to a staggering $18.2 billion since 1995. To put that figure in perspective, $18.2 billion is enough to buy 2.9 billion Twinkies every year - 21 for every single American taxpayer. 

Issue | Budget, Food

Stop Subsidizing Obesity

Ending taxpayer subsidies for junk food.

Report | NCPIRG Education Fund | Food

Apples to Twinkies

America is facing an obesity epidemic – one that’s hitting children especially hard. Childhood obesity rates have tripled over the last three decades, with one in five kids aged 6 to 11 now obese.

News Release | Food

Representative Jeff Flake Introduces REAPS Act

Statement of U.S. PIRG Federal Legislative Office Director Gary Kalman on the introduction of the Reducing the Deficit through Eliminating Agriculture Direct Payment Subsidies Act.

News Release | NCPIRG | Food

Cutting Ag Subsidies Key to Implementing USDA’s Dietary Recommendations

Statement of Elizabeth Hitchcock, NCPIRG Federal Public Health Advocate on the USDA’s announcement of new Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Food

President Signs Historic Food Safety Bill

Statement of U.S. PIRG Public Health Advocate Liz Hitchcock on the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act that President Obama signed into law on January 4th, strengthening the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety authority for the first time in seventy years.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Food

USDA's New Performance Standards Should Bring Safer Poultry to Market

Statement of NCPIRG Public Health Advocate Liz Hitchcock regarding the USDA's new performance standards that should bring safer poultry to market.

Media Hit | Food

USA Today: 'Growing concern' over marketing tainted beef

Beef containing harmful pesticides, veterinary antibiotics and heavy metals is being sold to the public because federal agencies have failed to set limits for the contaminants or adequately test for them, a federal audit finds.

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