EWG sent this media advisory out Friday afternoon, in anticipation of the House-Senate conference 'deal' on the farm bill. About which, more later.

WASHINGTON, April 25 – Although net farm income reached a record level of $88.7 billion last year propelled by high market prices for major crops, Washington still sent out over $5 billion of taxpayers' money in direct payment farm subsidies to over 1.4 million recipients. Over 60 percent of the subsidy was pocketed by just 10 percent of the recipients.

The names of individuals and businesses that collected the money, and the amount they received in 2007, will be published online Tuesday, April 29 by Environmental Working Group at www.ewg.org.

EWG is publishing the direct payment subsidy information to inform public consideration of the 2008 Farm Bill. The bill is expected to be finalized by Congress in the next week, following months of delays and five emergency extensions of the expiring law.

Direct payment subsidies are provided without regard to the economic need of the recipients or the financial condition of the farm economy. Established in 1996, direct payments were originally meant to wean farmers off traditional subsidies that are triggered during periods of low prices for corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, rice and other crops.

The farm subsidy lobby has insisted the payments continue even when crop prices and farm income are soaring.

Farm income exceeded $84,000 per household on average in 2007, compared to a 2006 average for all U.S. households of $66,000.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, who has sought without success to shift direct payments to other farm bill priorities, told The New York Times last week that direct payments are "like the black hole in space that astronomers talk about: everything gets sucked in and nothing ever comes out. . . . This is the black hole of agriculture. It doesn’t make sense, but farmers continue to get it.” According to the Times, "Mr. Harkin said there was not much he could do because 'I don’t have the votes,” adding, “People love free money.'”

"This Congress has done almost nothing to help ordinary Americans cope with record gasoline prices, skyrocketing electricity bills, rising food costs, widespread job lay-offs, and an epidemic of home foreclosures," said Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group. "About all Washington has managed to do is give taxpayers a few hundred bucks of their own money back, through a one-time tax rebate.”

"But when the farm subsidy lobby comes calling on Capitol Hill, it's a different story," Cook added. "Even when farmers are making record amounts of money, Congress gives them even more, instead of giving taxpayers a break or redirecting the money to pressing needs like food assistance, healthier school lunches and conservation. While Congress is considering increased funds for all of these areas, the increases will be limited and insufficient because the farm subsidy lobby's needs trump all others."

Cook said negotiations over a new farm bill are likely to yield five more years of windfall payments to the largest, wealthiest farmers in the country because congressional leaders have been unwilling to stand up to special interest farm groups.

"From every indication, Congress is about to be grotesquely generous to big, subsidized farms that are now enjoying unprecedented prosperity, including double-digit increases in farmland prices. The list of farm subsidy beneficiaries we're publishing Tuesday will make clear the disturbing degree to which congressional leaders are catering to the powerful farm subsidy lobby at the expense of ordinary American taxpayers, while shortchanging other vital national needs," Cook said.

# # #
CONTACT: Don Carr, EWG, (202) 667-6982 or don@ewg.org

Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that uses the power of information to protect the environment and public health. EWG's Farm Subsidy Database (http://farm.ewg.org/farm/) has been searched over 102 million times since Nov. 2004.