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Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Millions of farm subsidy dollars go to the dead

As many as 2,393 deceased Floridians received $88,871,593 in farm subsidies, Stephen Stock of WFOR-TV in Miami reports. In addition to the deceased recipients, thousands of others receive farm subsidies despite not actually working on a farm. "You don't have to farm to get farm subsidies," Richard Wiles, Environmental Working Group senior vice president for policy and communications, told Stock. "You don't have to have ever farmed to get farm subsidies. You don't even have to be alive to get farm subsidies."

Stock and WFOR's "I-Team" paired EWG's database of farm-subsidy recipients with people, birth dates, addresses and Social Security numbers in the Social Security Administration's database to determine the number of dead recipients. "I'm not surprised at all that you found that those numbers, hundreds of farmers who have been dead five, seven, or even eight years are still receiving checks from the government," Wiles told Stock. "It's just the way agriculture is today. There's just billions and billions of dollars being spent to farmers every year and almost no accountability for where the money goes." (Read more)

But how do the data look outside of the Sunshine State? Al Tompkins of The Poynter Institute passes along several useful resources in his "Morning Meeting" today to help local journalists investigate data in their communities. You can browse the EWG database of farm subsidy recipients here by name, county or state. You can also read the 2007 Government Accountability Office report calling for better farm subsidy regulations to eliminate payments to deceased individuals.

We echo this piece of advice from Tompkins: "Remember, just because people get a subsidy does not mean they are doing something wrong or illegal. For some farmers, subsidies have been lifelines in tough times. But billions of dollars go to people who have never farmed but hold a financial interest in a farm." (Read more)

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