“Free money”: Who got $5 billion in 2007 farm subsidy handouts?
By
Environmental Working Group Read Spanish Version
Although
net farm income reached a record level of $88.7 billion last year due
to high market prices for major crops, Washington still sent out over
$5 billion of taxpayers’ money in direct payment farm subsidies to
over 1.4 million recipients. Over 60 percent of the subsidy was
pocketed by just 10 percent of the recipients.
The
names of individuals and businesses that collected the money, and the
amount they received in 2007, are published online by Environmental
Working Group (EWG) at www.ewg.org.
EWG
is publishing the direct payment subsidy information to inform public
consideration of the 2008 Farm Bill. The bill is expected to be
finalized by Congress this week, following months of delays and five
emergency extensions of the expiring law.
Direct
payment subsidies are provided without regard to the economic need of
the recipients or the financial condition of the farm economy.
Established in 1996, direct payments were originally meant to wean
farmers off traditional subsidies that are triggered during periods
of low prices for corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, rice and other
crops.
The
farm subsidy lobby has insisted the payments continue even when crop
prices and farm income are soaring.
Farm
income exceeded $84,000 per household on average in 2007, compared to
a 2006 average for all U.S. households of $66,000.
Senate
Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, who has sought without
success to shift direct payments to other farm bill priorities, told
The New
York Times
last week that direct payments are "like the black hole in
space that astronomers talk about: everything gets sucked in and
nothing ever comes out. . . . This is the black hole of agriculture.
It doesn’t make sense, but farmers continue to get it.” According
to the Times,
"Mr. Harkin said there was not much he could do because ‘I don’t
have the votes,’” adding, “People love free money.”
"This
Congress has done almost nothing to help ordinary Americans cope with
record gasoline prices, skyrocketing electricity bills, rising food
costs, widespread job lay-offs, and an epidemic of home
foreclosures," said Ken Cook, EWG president. "About all
Washington has managed to do is give taxpayers a few hundred bucks of
their own money back, through a one-time tax rebate.
"But
when the farm subsidy lobby comes calling on Capitol Hill, it’s a
different story," Cook added. "Even when farmers are making
record amounts of money, Congress gives them even more instead of
giving taxpayers a break or redirecting the money to pressing needs
like food assistance, healthier school lunches and conservation.
While Congress is considering increased funds for all of these
areas, the increases will be limited and insufficient because the
farm subsidy lobby’s needs trump all others."
Cook
said negotiations over a new farm bill are likely to yield five more
years of windfall payments to the largest, wealthiest farmers in the
country because congressional leaders have been unwilling to stand up
to special interest farm groups.
"From
every indication, Congress is about to be grotesquely generous to
big, subsidized farms that are now enjoying unprecedented prosperity,
including double-digit increases in farmland prices. The list of farm
subsidy beneficiaries we’re publishing makes clear the disturbing
degree to which congressional leaders are catering to the powerful
farm subsidy lobby at the expense of ordinary American taxpayers,
while shortchanging other vital national needs," Cook said.
Environmental
Working Group is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that
uses the power of information to protect the environment and public
health.
