Farm Subsidies website

[freeholdfarms]

http://farm.ewg.org/farm/index.php?key=nosign
Interesting website, see which states get the most, which congressman's district gets the most. Check out your zipcode......

[ladycat]

Oh my gosh, I put in my zipcode, looks like half the people in town have gotten farm subsidies.

Where's mine??? LOL

[AngieM2]

The top one in my zip code is well known around here, and the second one is someone I'm about 5 miles from and our children have gone to school together and the lady has worked at same companies that I have.

But they have huge amounts of land they farm and lots of those big machines to take care of it.

Angie

[Shepherd]

Is this like CRP programs?

[ladycat]

Originally Posted by Shepherd

Is this like CRP programs?

No, not at all.

Here's a good basic overview of what farm subsidies are:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidies

[ksfarmer]

Originally Posted by Shepherd

Is this like CRP programs?

I think the EWG figure includes CRP program payments, (Conservation, disaster, and commodity subsidies). Also, realize that the figures you see are a 10 year total, 1995-2006.

[quadcam79]

if you get the chance, watch the movie "King Corn" ...The filmmakers trace the history of corn subsidies in the US – the current system started only about 30 years ago when the Farm Bill was changed and the emphasis was put on industrial-style monocropping. The two friends lose money growing their acre of corn – the cost of seed, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, and equipment rental outweigh the price per bushel they get for their corn. However, they get government subsidies for growing the corn which makes up for the initial input cost. The film gets to the heart of the matter by revealing the farmers’ frustrations. Many of them are multi-generation farmers caught up in the farm subsidy system. They realize that the current farm subsidies are part of an end to the more traditional farming of generations past, but can’t remove themselves from the system without losing their shirts.

[SouthernSon]

As someone that is against all forms of fed taxation, I am against anyone receiving subsidies from the feds for anything.

[whiterabbit454]

Originally Posted by SouthernSon

As someone that is against all forms of fed taxation, I am against anyone receiving subsidies from the feds for anything.

that wont fly at all it is so ingrained to have subsidies that you wont get rid of them

[Scrounger]

The list for my county has LOTS of duplicate names - I.E -John Jones, John M Jones, Mrs John Jones, John Jones Jr, etc. This wouldn't be odd, except that I know "Mr Jones & family", and know how many acres they own/rent.

[Wisconsin Ann]

I'm trying to figure out how a real estate agency ends up with over 1.6Million in farm subsidies Our zipcode for the house. not many farms around here....

then I put in the zip for our farm. ALL farmland in the zipcode with a tiny(400people) town in the middle. Total for the entire zip is 4mil.

methinks something stinks.

ah well.

[Ravenlost]

Scrounger...someone in our county in the top 20 is a realtor who doesn't farm at all. I guess he's drawing subsidies on properties he buys and sells. We suspect he drew subsidies on our property after we bought it as we didn't sign up for them for the first two years we owned the property. When we went to sign up we were told the office had recently tried to get in touch with us, but the realtor told them he couldn't remember who he sold it to (which is a bunch of bull). There are dozens of other subsidies signed up under varations of his name too...it adds up to over half a million dollars!

Hubby and I are number 191 and 192 on the list. SouthernSon, the subsidies we receive don't even cover a month's worth of taxes we pay in. I don't see anything wrong with us getting some of our tax money back.

[Beltane]

That's a neat site - thanks for posting.

[Windy in Kansas]

Actually that is not for a 10 year period. If you will click on an individual name you will find that it is for a 12 year period.

By clicking on a name it also gives a break down of what the subsidies are basically for.
For the area I looked at most were price support payments meaning the recipient received money for each bushel of established yield for their farms when the market price was below a certain level set by the government.

Since farmers are not given access to the full free worldwide markets I can certainly understand why the government should make up the amount that they might otherwise be able to sell for. As an example, in the past marketing to Cuba was restricted even though Cuba wanted to buy US grain.

The size of payments I looked at are all directly related to the amount of land ownership or cash rental, for the size of the farms under the recipients control. Farmers of like size that sharecrop receive less as the landowner receives a payment as well. I cash rent out my land so the farmer receives the entire payment.

Some of the payments are for cost-share of conservation practices. That can mean terraces, dams, waterways, ponds, etc. Many of which have been mentioned on these forums as being available.

[Scrounger]

Another is a CITY recieving the subsities......

[Quint]

Do they also have a site that lists all the welfare payments made to people in the form of WIC, ADC, Social Security, medicaid, medicare, etc? How about the names and residences of Federal employees and elected officials along with their salaries and benefits?

If not, why not? Why just farmers?

[tx_bhp]

Ravenlost,
Nothing wrong with you getting some of tax money back.
Why can't everyone else get some of theirs back too?

[Windy in Kansas]

Originally Posted by Quint

Do they also have a site that lists all the welfare payments made to people in the form of WIC, ADC, Social Security, medicaid, medicare, etc? How about the names and residences of Federal employees and elected officials along with their salaries and benefits?

If not, why not? Why just farmers?

We need to point out the the so called farm bills are not really farm bills at all but rather assistant bills.

A quote from this site which is a little dated by now: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26597
"Seventy-Four percent of the funding for the bill will be on the school lunch program, food stamps and food banks and twenty-six percent is allocated for farm related programs."

Did you folks get that, 26% for farm related programs? Take out the conservation programs that recipients other than actual farmers get and the margin farmers actually receives drops even lower.

For 2008 it is at least called the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008. If that is the one that was finally passed. At least they've moved it away from being identified as a farm program by renaming it with a more accurate title.

[beaglady]

I would definitely say the list includes CRP payments. The previous owner of my farm is listed, and he was enrolled in CRP, but did not farm.