- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The
biggest American farmers received 71 percent of U.S. farm subsidies since
1995, environmentalists said Tuesday in a report that could fuel the fight
in Congress for tighter limits on farm supports. Activists say mammoth
payments to large operators gives them the cash to out- bid their smaller
neighbors for land and equipment. The result is higher operating costs
but no improvement in farm income.
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- According to the Environmental Working Group, the top
10 percent of U.S. growers collected an average $278,932 a year. Their
share of payments steadily grew from 1995, when the elite group of farmers
got 55 percent of government payments.
-
- Billions of dollars are funneled to American grain, cotton,
and soybean growers each year. Farmers and ranchers also receive federal
money to idle environmentally sensitive land or to control manure run-off
from fields and feedlots.
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- "The ability of the family farmer to survive and
make a living is plummeting," said Chuck Hassebrook of the Center
for Rural Affairs in Walthill, Neb. "Farm programs are doing as much
to subsidize large farmers as to drive smaller farmers out of business."
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- Iowa Republican Charles Grassley planned to ask for a
Senate vote in coming weeks for a "hard" cap on farm subsidies,
now set at $360,000 a year but easily circumvented. An aide said Grassley
wanted a limit in the range of $275,000-$300,000 that would end ways to
exceed the limit.
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- "It's not surprising to me that concentration is
increasing," said Grassley. "Hopefully this information will
prove it's time to act and enact legitimate, reasonable payment limits."
-
- The Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based activist
organization, released its report as the World Trade Organization was meeting
in Mexico to discuss how to cut farm subsidies in rich nations, which spend
a combined $300 billion annually on their growers.
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- The United States maintains its farm subsidies of about
$18.7 billion this fiscal year fall within the WTO rules.
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- The Environmental Working Group study showed that 71
percent of payments went to the biggest farmers ó far higher than
the belief among agricultural experts that large farmers received about
two-thirds of the money. Large operators often control thousands of acres
and account for a large part of crop and livestock output.
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- Environmental Working Group said the higher figure became
apparent when it totaled payments for the eight years at $114 billion and
divided for the 2.8 million recipients.
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- "Payments are more concentrated over the eight-year
period than for individual years because the largest recipients tend to
receive payments every year," it said in its report.
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- Riceland Foods Inc., a 9,000-member cooperative in Arkansas,
was the largest subsidy recipient in 2002 with $110 million.
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- The subsidy list indirectly included Bernard Ebbers,
the former chief executive of telephone company WorldCom, which filed the
largest bankruptcy case in history last year. Ebbers was part-owner of
Joshua Timber Co. LLC, which got $44,761 since 1995, mostly for land conservation.
Ebbers was not shown as receiving money directly.
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- "We're not suggesting big is bad," said Ken
Cook, head of Environmental Working Group. He argues that land stewardship
programs should get 25 percent of farm subsidy money ó a much larger
share than now allotted. Stewardship money is spread far more evenly than
crop subsidies and is available to all farmers, not just those growing
wheat, corn, barley, cotton, rice, and oilseeds such as soybeans.
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- Environmental Working Group said it would make available
on the Internet its figures, based on U.S. Agriculture Department records,
at http://www.ewg.org/farm2/home.php.<
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- http://www.enn.com/news/2003-09-09/s_8208.asp
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