More than half of the $8.4 billion in aid the U.S. Agriculture Department has given out to compensate for disruptions caused by President Trump’s trade wars, about $4.5 billion, has gone to the largest 10% of farms, according a study by the Environmental Working Group.
The White House has devoted considerable funds to protecting farmers from the impact of the trade war. The administration said in May that would make $14.5 billion in ‘direct payments’ to farmers this year and another $1.4 billion to purchase surplus agricultural commodities in order to compensate for Chinese trade retaliation. It was the second aid package the Trump administration had given to farmers, having authorized $12 billion in assistance last year, also to make up disruptions caused by trade fights with China and others. Payments are made to farmers who apply for relief through the USDA’s Market Facilitation Program.
The Environmental Working Group argued that many farmers were gaming the system. “Although USDA initially said it would place a $125,000 cap on MFP payments, the department chose to apply rules that allow relatives who do not contribute meaningful work on the farm to receive farm payments, allowing many farm businesses to evade the cap,” EWG senior adviser Donald Carr and Chris Campbell, its vice president of information technology, said in a statement.
A USDA spokesman said the payments reflected the realities of the damage the industry received. “The nature of the program is designed to provide a level of support that’s proportionate to a farm’s size and success. Payments were made based on a producer’s individual production — the more acres they farm and bushels per acre they produce — the more assistance they receive,” the spokesman told the Washington Examiner.
The spokesman disputed that the payments evaded any cap, stating the aid payment had all been made, according to “published regulations and existing procedures for operations with multiple individuals that maintain management roles or are considered actively engaged in farming.”
The payments were authorized following China retaliation during the trade war by limiting purchases of U.S. farm goods, such as soybeans and pork. The $14.5 billion in direct payments will go to producers of product based on a farm’s total plantings of those crops for this year, the livestock headcount for pork producers, and past production levels for dairy producers.
