Farm Bill Pays Tons of Cash to Rich, Non-Farmers

The story

Some conservatives hope to limit subsidies in the Farm Bill – which has made it through the House, and now awaits a vote in the Senate – to people who actually farm, and who earn less than a certain cut-off figure, such as $100,000 per year.

Many liberal groups want to see farm subsidy reform as well.

Follow the money

According to Open the Books, a non-partisan non-profit that tracks and reports on government spending, the government paid out $13.2 billion in subsidies to 958,700 recipients in 2017. Of those, 5,921 recipients received more than $250,000 each.

Standouts included $278,800 to 25 recipients in Aspen, Colorado, $1,800,000 to 251 recipients in Park City, Utah (both decidedly affluent areas), and a whopping $702,000 to just nine recipients in Fisher Island, Florida, which contains the United States’ most prosperous zip code.

Substantial payouts also went to recipients in urban areas with limited agricultural activity. A combined 2,394 recipients in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, New York City, and Chicago received $14,700,000 in subsidy payouts.

Rich people have long enjoyed Farm Bill subsidies, including NBA star Scottie Pippen, media mogul Ted Turner, Tony Award winner Bruce Springsteen, rocker Jon Bon Jovi, and activist Louis Farrakhan.

You don’t even necessarily have to be alive to receive subsidies. According to The Economist, “Between 2008 and 2012, $10.6m was paid to farmers who had been dead for over a year.”

The Heritage Foundation provides detailed research to show that farm subsidies primarily help large agricultural producers, not family farms.

What do you think?

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—Sara E. Murphy

(Photo Credit: skeeze via Pixabay / Creative Commons)