Half of USDA Farm Subsidy Dollars Go to Just 4% of Farms

[The Straight Story]

Half of USDA Farm Subsidy Dollars Go to Just 4% of Farms
Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not spread the wealth when it comes to farm subsidies. In fact, from the mid-1990s to the middle of this decade, just over half of all subsidies were distributed to a mere 4% of all recipients, according to USDA data compiled by the Environmental Working Group. The amount given to this small crop of farmers was almost $90 billion.

Three of the largest beneficiaries in 2007 were farming operations in California: Sandridge Partners, District 108 Farms and Dublin Farms. Other top recipients were Dnrc Trust Land Management - Exem (Montana), Martori Family Gen Ptn and Gila River Farms (Arizona), Balmoral Farming Partnership (Louisiana), Napi (New Mexico) and Due West (Mississippi).
-Noel Brinkerhoff

USDA Farm Subsidies 1995-2006 (Environmental Working Group)
Top Recipients of USDA Subsidies 2007 (Environmental Working Group)

http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/Half_of_USDA_Farm_Subsidy_Dollars_Go_to_Just_4_Percent_of_Farms_91229

[Wapsie B]

1. That fact is lost on many.

Some will marvel at the material success of these large ag operations. The heads of the corporate farms are looked on as rugged individualists when in fact they derive their wealth from the government. People point to how many workers this large farm employs but be completely oblivious to the fact that the big boys also killed the small farm.

[Earth_First]

2. You'd be surprised how many legislators recieve farm subsidies themselves...

if I recall, in 2007 nearly two dozen legislators took in subsidies totaling nearly 7 million paid directly to them or their families direct.

[AzDar]

4. Michelle " Socialism Is Eeeevil" Bachmann being a major recipient last year...

Don't know whether to :rofl: or :cry:

[Nikki Stone1]

11. No kidding. Since she seems to be growing hallucinogens on her farmland,

perhaps we should rescind her subsidies. :evilgrin:

[douglas9]

19. Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen

Michele Bachmann has become well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics, protesting health care reform and every other government “handout” as socialism. What her followers probably don’t know is that Rep. Bachmann is, to use that anti-government slur, something of a welfare queen. That’s right, the anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts thanks to corrupt farming subsidies she has been collecting for at least a decade.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/michelle_bachman_welfare_queen_20091221/

[Itchinjim]

21. Chuckles Grassley was one of them.

Somehow though it's not socialism when the cash goes to republicans. Go figure

[kestrel91316]

3. Corporate welfare. And I betcha every single one of those corporations

grows NOTHING BUT GMO crops.

[oreo3leg]

5. I recall Sam Donaldson getting subsidies a while back but I have

not kept tract lately.

[Better Today]

6. A reflection of the most of our economy. Disgusting.

[Luminous Animal]

7. U.S. Senators on the Government Dole (re: farm subsidies)

Jill Richardson does some research in this Daily Kos diary in which she finds out that, "The results? 10 out of 21 members of the Senate Ag Committee comes from the top 10 farm subsidy recipient states. Go figure."

http://www.rbguy.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/29/820080/-U.S.-Senators-on-the-Government-Dole

[underpants]

8. This IS the problem on many many many levels

I can't rec this enough

You probably have read "Food Fight" by Daniel Imhoff and you know how ludicrous the entire system is and how completely unreported it is.

REC bookmarked

[Maru Kitteh]

16. I'll rec it another time on your behalf. Here in Nebraska a good % of radio ads go on about the

"quiet/thankless/hard/noble work of the AMERICAN FARMER" - about how they don't have boardrooms and corporate jets or bailouts and they roll their sleeves up and EARN a living.... blah blah blah... and the people around here positively EAT IT UP.

If you plan to accuse any of these noble servants of the earth of accepting welfare I hope you have on a suit of armor, a current will and a borrowed car. I know. I've tried.

[clear eye]

9. Some more mega-corporate corruption of gov't.

Been this way for far too long. Guess which side the Admin's Sec'y of Ag is on?

[Quantess]

10. That stinks.

K & R

[Quantess]

12. kick

[lonestarnot]

13. Gila River farms? Isn't that on the Res?

[Hidden Stillness]

14. This Partly Explains Why Factory Farms are Allowed to Remain so Horrific--They are a Team

This also explains why so many outrageous violations by these factory farms goes unpunished; they have so much clout, that they control the system, not the Government. There are many consequences to the economy, health, the environment, treatment of animals, when the entire world of family farming--and the rural life itself--is taken away, and given to a few small group of corporations, leaving the rest of the population shut out of the only life it once knew; and all of the consequences are bad. Recent studies, by the Pew Charitable Trust and others, show that huge factory farms/agribusiness, are bad for many reasons, including that they produce some 20% of all greenhouse gases, higher than the amount produced by all driven vehicles, yet factory farms receive no attention for this problem. The cramped and cruel living conditions for the animals (besides being an outrage and a sin itself) causes constant spread of disease, and the general unhealthiness of so many animals makes them unable to fight off disease, so antibiotics are overused, constantly. The health of neighbors of these operations also suffers. Why then, is nothing ever done? A House committee even recently undercut EPA efforts to make factory farms report and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions--why? Undercover investigations by the Humane Society and others, as to the very cruel treatment of cows and other animals, and the illegal use of diseased cows for food, has also produced no higher level of criminal charges, shut down operations, improved conditions--why? They don't ban the use of antibiotics and other drugs, even after it is shown to have a detrimental effect on people who consume it--why? A quote from the Washington Post article tells it:

"At the end of his second term, President Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation about the dangers of the military-industrial complex -- an unhealthy alliance between the defense industry, the Pentagon, and their friends on Capitol Hill," wrote Robert P. Martin, executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, which wrote the report. "Now the agro-industrial complex -- an alliance of agricultural commodity groups, scientists at academic institutions who are paid by the industry, and their friends on Capitol Hill -- is a concern in animal food production in the 21st century."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/29/AR2008042902602_pf.html

The close connections between the Federal Government and its subsidies, and the agribusness industry--including other huge corporations such as Tyson, etc., another firm that always escapes consequences for its cruel treatment of animals, its union-busting, its price-fixing with others, etc.--show why this type of situation, of type and extent of contacts, between a reduced total number of corporations, and the U.S. Government, as a small, closed group, is so threatening. They do not even have to pay any attention to ordinary law and reporting--and they don't.

[Greyhound]

15. This deserves far more attention. K&R. n/t

[old mark]

17. ALL government subsidy programs must be re-examined and tightly controlled.

We want to save taxpayer money? Here is a way to do that.


mark

[Dogtown]

18. K&R n/t

[Greyhound]

20. West coast kick. n/t