The Washington Post continues its story about the farm subsidy program in the United States today. Taking up from where they left it yesterday, today they look at the farm subsidy lobby. There is a very large amount of money involved, and the agricultural interests have an extremely powerful lobby. They enjoy bipartisan support, too.
The farm bloc is an efficient, tightknit club of farmers, rural banks, insurance companies, real estate operators and tractor dealers. Many of its Washington lobbyists are former lawmakers or congressional aides. Harnessed to dozens of grass-roots groups, such as the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Cotton Council and the USA Rice Federation, farm-state lawmakers — the "aggies," as they call themselves — fight with the fervor of the embattled.
About 1.2 million farmers and farmland owners got $15 billion in income support or price guarantees in 2005, according to a Washington Post analysis of Agriculture Department payment records. The benefits are heavily tilted to large commercial farmers growing a few row crops in a handful of states. But the money also is widely distributed to a middle group of more than 130,000 farms, each receiving $25,000 to $100,000. The federal dollars ripple through local economies, adding to purchasing power at stores and businesses — and creating a political constituency for the programs.
The numbers appear to be a bit wacky (a straight average yields $12,500 per farm – which wouldn't be a lot if that was how it was distributed), but they don't give a good breakdown. Obviously there are some farm operations that are getting enormous amounts, while others only get a few dollars. But breaking the lobby's stranglehold on Congress will not be easy. There is a lot of cash involved. Yesterday's report showed that the subsidies are actually helping kill the family farm they were supposed to help. Today's report shows why it is happening. Money flows to members of Congress through these lobbies.
