In Trump Farm Bailout, Top 1% Reaped Nearly One-Fourth of Aid
The Trump administration’s farm bailouts steered an expanding share of subsidy payments to the nation’s biggest farms, according to an analysis by an environmental advocacy group that highlights issues of equity as the Biden administration designs potential new climate-related financial incentives for farmers.
Just 1% of farm aid recipients collected 23% of subsidy payments in 2019, up from 17% in 2016, as former President Donald Trump’s trade bailout swelled payments to farmers. Their portion crept up to 24% in the first half of 2020, the most recent period covered in the data, as farm aid hit a record level with coronavirus relief payments, according to the Environmental Working Group analysis.
That is the largest share of federal farm subsidies going to the top 1% -- the 7,873 subsidy recipients who got the highest payments -- since 2007, according to the analysis. The average payment for that group was $497,907.
The findings follow criticism from Democrats that Trump’s farm bailouts were skewed toward large farms and academic studies concluding the trade aid payments were greater than farmers’ actual losses from Trump’s tariff conflict with China. A General Accountability Office report issued in September found the top 25 recipients of trade aid in 2019 received an average of $1.5 million per farm.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-24/largest-farms-share-of-subsidies-grew-under-trump-bailouts?srnd=politics-vp