With a hat tip to Steven Colbert's superb reporting in his "Better Know a District" series, from time to time Mulch will profile congressional districts as we plunge into the 2007 farm bill debate.

We'll start with the districts of the newly named subcommittee chairmen of the House Agriculture Committee.

First up, Rep. Dennis Cardoza, California 18--the farmin' 18th!--who chairs a new subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture.

Cardoza is positioned to be one of the key players in the 2007 farm bill debate.

Here's the headline: CA-18 is a major farm bill loser. Why?

According to the 2002 Census of Agriculture, Congressman Cardoza's district ranks 18th in the nation for market value of agricultural production exceeding $2 billion in 2002. Yet CA-18 ranks a lowly 84 among congressional districts in the FSD for total subsidies paid (remember, half of all subsidies paid over the period went to just 22 districts).

Why the big mismatch? Because of the prevalance on non-subsidy crops in California 18, notably vegetables, melons, potatoes and sweet potatoes, and fruits, tree nuts and berries, and poultry. (Dairy is also big--but subsidized).

No wonder Mr. Cardoza was the lead Democrat on the "Eat Healthy America Act" legislation introduced last fall that is the legislative vehicle the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance developed to redress inequities in farm assistance--namely, specialty crops getting shafted. EWG supports the legislation because it emphasizes conservation programs.

So the 2007 farm bill is a test of whether CA-18 will continue to be a farm bill loser or not.

As the FSD profile for the district reveals, Chairman Cardoza's district has collected $405 million in subsidies paid to nearly 3,400 recipients between 1995-2005.

The top payment programs are as follows:

Commodity subsidies for cotton are the big ticket item in CA-18. At $233 million, cotton accounts for more than half the total subsidies paid.

Here are the top cotton subsidy recipients in CA-18.

Altogether, 79 recipients have collected at least $1 million total in farming subsidies over the past 11 years (1995-2005).