When the Trump administration poured billions of dollars into rural America to mitigate the impact of trade war, “most of it bypassed the country’s traditional small and medium-sized farms that were battered by the loss of their export market,” said the CBS News program 60 Minutes on Sunday. It’s just as likely big farmers will benefit in a big way when the USDA disburses $16 billion in coronavirus-relief cash to farmers and ranchers, said the program.
The USDA has yet to announce payment rates for the assistance, which Agriculture SecretarySonny Perdue hopes to distribute this month. Congress provided the money and left it to Perdue to figure out how to spend it. Livestock producers are expected to get $9.6 billion of the money. Some farm groups say they will need an additional round of payments this summer and have suggested the USDA should eliminate payment limits on the coronavirus assistance.
Nominally, crop subsidies are limited to $125,000 per farmer but the limits are easy to circumvent. The Trump administration raised the limit to $250,000 per person for trade war payments.
“Most of the money has gone to the biggest farms — one-third of it to just 4 percent of them. Even farm owners who personally report nearly $1 million in income per year are eligible,” 60 Minutes reported.
“It’s not a welfare program … It’s a crop damage system,” said Perdue. “The fact is … most of our production in America is done by large farmers. That’s just the way it happens.”
If payment limits are porous, “it really is the responsibility of Congress” to fix it, he said.
Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group, which tracks farm subsidy payments, said high payment limits are a boon for big operators. “They made the changes for the very largest farmers,” he said. “If you’re a small farmer, you don’t have to worry about the limits. You’re not going to come close to hitting them.”
Correspondent Lesley Stahl interviewed a lawyer, Robert Serio, who described the simplest way to collect additional payments: declare that family members, such as spouses and children, take an active part in the farm. Each of them is eligible for a payment. He said the largest partnership he helped create had 66 members who were farmers in the eyes of USDA.
To watch the 60 Minutes episode or read a transcript, click here.