Subscriber Special: Harvesting U.S. Farm Subsidies

August 8, 2018 09:00 AM

"Today, farm subsidies have grown so lucrative that wealthy investors, large corporations, and farm-estate heirs use taxpayer money

to maximize their personal returns."

Farm subsidies were never intended to become welfare for the wealthy.

Launching today in an editorial at Real Clear Politics, our newest oversight report, Harvesting U.S. Farm Subsidies catalogs $13.2 billion in farm subsidies flowing to nearly 958,000 recipients (FY2017).

Consider some examples of the modern-day farm subsidy:

Residents in America’s five most populated cities received $18 million in farm subsidies over a three-year period, including Chicago ($7.7 million), Houston ($5.8 million), New York City ($2.8 million), Los Angeles ($1.6 million), and Philadelphia ($309,000).

In fiscal year 2017, $4.8 million in farm subsidies flowed to the upper-middle class elites in America’s most expensive zip codes. It’s hard to believe folks in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood are farming, but these two zip codes received $139,080 and $94,090 over the last three years, respectively.

We discovered more than $626 million in federal farm subsidy payments during the last three fiscal years flowed to recipients in urban areas where there are no farms. Cities with populations exceeding 250,000 people.

Just last year, a fortunate 400 farmers across America pulled down $1 million or more in farm subsidies each.

Follow the money flowing into your zip code!

Using our interactive map at OpenTheBooks.com, search all $100,000 recipients of federal farm subsidies flowing into ZIP Codes across America. Search the map, click here.