cityslickers_inset.jpg

ABOUT KEN

Ken Cook is president of Environmental Working Group, a public interest research and advocacy organization known for its Farm Subsidy Database. The author of dozens of articles, opinion pieces and reports on agricultural, public health and environmental topics, "[Cook's] fingerprints can be found on nearly two decades of U.S. farm law" (Omaha World Herald). Read more about the authors.

Stay connected

Get our monthly eNewsletter, farm policy updates, & the latest farm news. [Privacy policy]


Search the database

Search by city


Search by zip code

Search by beneficiaries's name
(last)
(first)

Search by business name

MULCH VIA EMAIL

Enter your Email


Preview | Powered by FeedBlitz

« NE-3 Tops in 2005 Subsidies | << Back to main page | 66 Percent of U.S. Farmers Report No Gov't Payments »

Half of Farm Subsidies Go To Twenty-Two Congressional Districts

That would be about $82 billion and change over the past eleven years.

Here's the list. Scroll down to number 22 and you'll top 50 percent of all subsidies.

These are big districts; some of them are entire states, of course. But they don't comprise half the farms, half the farmland, half the value of farm production in this country, or half the demand for federal assistance to deal with problems in rural America.

That imbalance is one reason why we're hearing more from fruit, vegetable and livestock producers, conservationists, and rural development experts about the need for new, fairer ways to invest federal farm bill resources.

Comments

Good to see you blogging, Ken. Your work in opening up US farm subsidies to public scrutiny is an inspiration for the growing network of transparency activists and researchers in Europe. We're slowly squeezing the data out, country-by-country and sometimes region-by-region, it's certainly a long haul but it is already having a big impact on the debate.

Keep up the good work!

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)