Curious how much taxpayer dole your local farmer is getting?

[Hohn]

Wow, found this site to be very interesting: EWG Farm Subsidy Database

Several folks in nearby zip codes have collected well over a million bucks since 1995.


Let's face it, most of the "Farm bill" is just massive corporate welfare, sold to the taxpayers as protecting poor family farmers while that group is a tiny fraction of the beneficiary pool. When you have people like Sam Donaldson and Ted Turner getting gov't handouts, the system seems flawed.

 

[88GT]

Ha! My neighbor is on there! But her total for the nearly 20 year time frame is less than $4000.

 

[Twangbanger]

Where I grew up in Ohio, there's a very high-profile, left-wing, large acreage farmer who makes five times the average Ohioan's wage in subsidies per year. The taxpayers have paid for his farm multiple times over.

Small farmers don't do so well off the sow's teat...but if you're a big operation, the table is set for you.

 

[Joe G]

Wow! See quite a few of my wife's relatives on that list.

I know farming, especially on a "family farm" (ie: not a big corporate farm), isn't always easy, but for this kind of $$ I'd take their "hardship" any day!

 

[zippy23]

farm subsidies and CRP, food prices are ridiculously high, and yes, its another form of welfare, the democrats have their hold in every aspect of our lives, its no wonder we are so done.

 

[cqcn88]

This has really hit a nerve with me for quite a while. I think it was year before last when we had a "drought" and all the farmers were collecting their govt subsidized insurance handouts, I heard an interview with one of the farmers who actually admitted that the farmers would be fine even without the insurance. He said "What most people don't realize is I'm a millionaire, my son is a millionaire, and my grandson is a millionaire." Many of these larger family farms have land worth millions that has been in the family for generations. My opinion is if a farm has a rough year and just can't get by, sell a few acres. It's called risk, EVERY other business in the country has to deal with it.

And apparently the farmer to my south who keeps encroaching on my yard (of course he didn't know he was doing it ) has collected 721k since '95.

 

[ghuns]

And apparently the farmer to my south who keeps encroaching on my yard (of course he didn't know he was doing it ) has collected 721k since '95.

He's an ameture. 3 of the farmers within a couple miles of me have collected 4.5 million out of the 11.5 million handed out in my zip code.

In the interest of full disclosure, my grandfather and father have collected about 20K in this time period. I give my dad crap about all the time. He usually gets under a grand every year, but our farm is only 200 acres, and he basically rents it, based on shares, to his cousin. His cousin and cousin's son are the #2 and #3 recipients in their zip, raking in about 1.5 million.

 

[spec4]

You usually can't "sell off a few acres". Son in law farms and gets subsidies. He can buy insurance at different levels of coverage with of course, different premiums so it appears that the insurance side is not taxpayer funded. He has mixed feeling about subsidies and correctly states that if he refused them it would put him at a competitive disadvantage.

That said, farming is a tough business. It is very capital intensive. You have zero control over the weather and thus, no control over your yield where weather is a factor. He has had years where the crops sold for less than his cost to create them.

 

[ATOMonkey]

They're probably still net tax contributors. I'd be really surprised if their net tax liability went into the negative.

I can't say I fault a guy for wanting to reduce his tax burden.

At any rate, I think we all know that the whole tax system needs to be thrown out and replaced with a single rate consumption tax.

 

[Bigtanker]

Wow. Just wow. My uncle's ex-wife and my cousin and his wife own and run a farm in Edwardsburg, MI. 49112. Between my cousins step dad, who owned the farm until his passing in 2010, the farm itself and my cousin and his wife, they have been given $1,510,635. This is just amazing. (#1,8,9 and 10 on the list from the link for zip code 49112)

 

[cce1302]

How much does your US Representative receive in farm subsidies?

Marlin Stutzman - Indiana 3rd District

EWG Farm Subsidy Database

 

[KLB]

You usually can't "sell off a few acres". Son in law farms and gets subsidies. He can buy insurance at different levels of coverage with of course, different premiums so it appears that the insurance side is not taxpayer funded. He has mixed feeling about subsidies and correctly states that if he refused them it would put him at a competitive disadvantage.

That said, farming is a tough business. It is very capital intensive. You have zero control over the weather and thus, no control over your yield where weather is a factor. He has had years where the crops sold for less than his cost to create them.

According to that website insurance is indeed subsidized

Unlimited crop insurance subsidies now cost the taxpayer $9 billion a year and overwhelmingly flow to the largest and most successful farm businesses. Unlike other farm subsidies, crop insurance subsidies are not subject to means testing or payment limits and farmers are not required to adopt basic environmental protections in exchange for premium support from the taxpayer. While some farms annually collect more than $1 million in crop insurance premium support, the bottom 80% of policyholders annually collect about $5,000.

 

[ATOMonkey]

So, congressmen can't be farmers?

 

[Hkindiana]

There is a farmer near e who always plants a very large field in the bottoms. Three out of four years his cops are loaded and ruined, but he does not care, because he sys he does quite well with farm insurance, without the work of having to harvest his crops. Without government subsidies, no one would sell him insurance, and he would have to find something else to do with that particular field. If I buy swampland, why should the government pay me because I can't grow the crops on it that I want to?

 

[BigMatt]

My family receives farm subsidies and have since we bought some bean fields and put them in CRP tree farms.

I have since been sold the property from my dad and must continue the paperwork or he must pay back all of the subsidies he has received. I get the subsidies, but it isn't worth the hassle.

I tried to get out of it, but it would cost him a bundle.

I have to keep it up for another 2 years because we are in some sort of 15 year agreement.

 

[Gluemanz28]

My future Son-In-Law and his family are Dairy farmers in Laporte County. They have received $493,000 in the 1995-2012 time span. I have seen what they do to keep the farm running. They can have that 24/7 job.

 

[cce1302]

So, congressmen can't be farmers?

what are you talking about?

 

[BehindBlueI's]

farm subsidies and CRP, food prices are ridiculously high, and yes, its another form of welfare, the democrats have their hold in every aspect of our lives, its no wonder we are so done.

Only the Democrats? That's funny.

Pat Roberts (R) from Kansas is one of the strongest pushers of the Farm Bill and pitched a hissy fit when Obama's debt reduction plan would have cut into farm subsidies by about 1/3. So did Frank Lucas (R) from Oklahoma. Plenty of Republicans love it. Look at the votes, and pretty much any congressman from an agricultural heavy district is on board.

U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Votes > Roll Call Vote

Congressional Bills and Votes - NYTimes.com

 

[wagyu52]

Check out zip code 61832 and 47993 for some really big fish in the ocean. It is important to note that these two guys live within 20 mi of each other and are good friends, farming is like a game of Monopoly for them. Take special note of what counties Walker Place receives payments from.

 

[jmiller676]

1.8 mil to a kids family I graduated with another 813K to other farmers I know and the top dog around me, 1.95 mil to a kid and family my sister graduated with.

AAAAAANNNNNDDDDDD.........$1,061,908.00 toooooooooo my brother in laws grandfather, which he now runs the company.


That explains A LOT about their political thinking....