Thursday, June 23, 2011

Searchable farm subsidy database updated

As reports continue of possible changes to farm subsidy programs, the Environmental Working Group has released its latest update to its subsidy database that lists recipients of subsidies by ZIP code and county and allows searches of individual and business names.

The group says the latest data confirm that reforms like the 2008 rule limiting payments to those "actively engaged" in farming have not prevented urban residents from receiving payments and "The largest farm operations still receive the vast majority of payments," EWG said in a release. To see the 2010 collection totals and number of recipients for other 100,000+ cities, click here.

EWG says the data shows from 1995-2010 that the largest and wealthiest operations, equaling about 10 percent of subsidized farms, "collected 76 percent of all commodity payments, with an average total payment over 16 years of $447,873 per recipient. Despite the 'reforms' that supporters of the subsidy system claimed were incorporated into the 2008 farm bill, the top 10 percent of recipients still harvested 63 percent of commodity subsidies in 2010."

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