Subscriber Special: The U.S. Farm Subsidy $1 Million Club

August 14, 2018 10:00 AM

Who received $1 million in federal farm

subsidies in your ZIP code?

Federal farm subsidies have grown so lucrative that wealthy investors, large corporations, and farm-estate heirs use taxpayer money to maximize their personal return on investment.

Since 2008, however, the top 10 farm subsidy recipients each received an average of $18.2 million – that’s $1.8 million annually, $150,000 per month, or $35,000 a week. With the median household income of $60,000 a year, these farmers received more than 30 times the average yearly income of U.S. families.

Consider these fast facts regarding the harvesting of farm subsidies:

Not the traditional family farm: The top five recipients reaped between $18 million and $23 million apiece since 2008. Additionally, subsidies of over $10 million apiece flowed to 18 individual farming entities.

Welfare to Wealthy Farmers: Over $11 billion in farm subsidies flowed to 6,618 recipients who received at least $1 million since 2008.

Very expensive mistakes: The Dept. of Agriculture admitted to $3.7 billion in "improper payments" processed since 2004. Just in the past two years, $650 million in subsidy over-payments were shelled out to farmers. In 2011, the Internal Revenue Service reported that $1.1 billion was paid to 172,801 deceased farmers over a six-year period.

Read the Top 10 Farm Subsidy Fast Facts in our column published at Forbes.

Hundreds of Chicagoans are cashing in on federal farm subsidy programs. CBS 2's Political Reporter Derrick Blakely interviews OpenTheBooks CEO Adam Andrzejewski on the 1,200 Chicago residents receiving farm subsidies totaling nearly $8 million.

Watch the CBS news segment.

Follow the money flowing into your zip code!

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