Marketplace Collaboration:
USDA pays farmers $10.5 billion to offset trade war losses
Photo: @no_one_cares via Unsplash
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by ANDI EGBERT and GABRIEL CORTES | Dec. 12, 2019
The APM Research Lab joined forces with Marketplace to analyze and map USDA data of payments to agriculture producers intended to ameliorate the effects of the trade war with China.
The data—acquired by Marketplace through a Freedom of Information Act request—show more than a million payments in the 14 months from the program’s inception in the fall of 2018 to Nov. 1, 2019. During that time, the U.S. government paid almost $10.5 billion in subsidies through its Market Facilitation Program.
USDA paid nearly $6 billion during the first four months of the program (September to December 2018) and distributed nearly $4.5 billion between Jan. 1 and Nov. 1, 2019. Midwestern producers have seen most of that money: thus far, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota have each received more than $1 billion in subsidies.
THE PAYMENTS
The average payment is nearly $10,000, but the median payment was about $1,900; a few very large payments pulled the average much higher.
The stand out payee is DeLine Farms of Missouri, whose operation (which appears under three different names that all list the same address) received 15 payments from USDA totaling more than $5.5 million. More than 60 other farming entities also received payments exceeding $1 million.
THE TRADE WAR SUBSIDIES, VISUALIZED
The maps below represent the money paid by USDA across 2018 and 2019, by state.
Note: Corn, cotton, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat were coded separately in 2018, but in 2019, USDA collapsed them into a single category called non-specialty crops. Other non-specialty crops like alfalfa hay, barley, canola, chickpeas, crambe, dried beans, dry peas, flaxseed, lentils, millet, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, rapeseed, rice, rye, safflower, sesame seed, sunflower seed, and triticale may also be included in that category in 2019. Specialty crops—which are fruit- or nut-bearing plants like almonds, cherries, cranberries, grapes, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pistachios, and walnuts—are coded uniquely in both years’ data, as are livestock (dairy and hogs).
SUBSIDIES PAID IN 2019
Source: APM Research Lab analysis of Market Facilitation Program payments obtained via FOIA request by Marketplace.
Notes: State-specific payments were aggregated from the addresses where the aid was delivered. In most cases the farmer will reside in the state of his farm. But in some cases, farm owner-operators may not live in the same state where the farm exists.
Non-specialty crop growers (which include corn, cotton, sorghum, soybean, and wheat growers) received $4.3 billion in aid—96% of the total payments made by USDA.
Hog farmers received just shy of $100 million and dairy farmers received more than $61 million; still, livestock only accounted for 3% of the USDA’s payments.
Other crops that amounted to less than 1% of USDA’s total payments for 2019 are as follows:
Cherries: $7.3 million
Pecans: $6.8 million
Walnuts: $5.4 million
Cranberries: $2.8 million
Grapes: $2.1 million
Pistachios: $1.7 million
Macadamia nuts: $52,000
Hazelnuts: $435
SUBSIDIES PAID IN 2018
Source: APM Research Lab analysis of Market Facilitation Program payments obtained via FOIA request by Marketplace.
Notes: State-specific payments were aggregated from the addresses where the aid was delivered. In most cases the farmer will reside in the state of his farm. But in some cases, farm owner-operators may not live in the same state where the farm exists.
Soybean farmers collected $5.1 billion in USDA subsidies in 2018—85% of the total amount paid by the program that year. Producers of the following commodities received these payments, from largest to smallest:
Cotton: $220.2 million (4%)
Sorghum: $180.0 million (3%)
Hogs: $129.2 million (2%)
Wheat: $120.9 million (2%)
Corn: $98.3 million (2%)
Dairy: $92.3 million (2%)
Almonds: $22.2 million (less than 1%)
Cherries: $8.1 million (less than 1%)
CROP BY CROP
For the first four months of the program—between September and December 2018—USDA coded many of its crops differently. Major cash crops like soybeans, cotton, sorghum, wheat, and corn are currently collapsed into one, non-specialty crop category, but in 2018, they were recorded as discrete entries.
During those months, USDA paid more than $5.5 billion in subsidy payments for those five crops, and almost all that money—$5.1 billion—went to soybean farmers.
Click the icons below to see the breakdown of which states received the most money by crop.
Source: APM Research Lab analysis of Market Facilitation Program payments obtained via FOIA request by Marketplace.
Notes: State-specific payments were aggregated from the addresses where the aid was delivered. In most cases the farmer will reside in the state of his farm. But in some cases, farm owner-operators may not live in the same state where the farm exists.
Source: APM Research Lab analysis of Market Facilitation Program payments obtained via FOIA request by Marketplace.
Notes: State-specific payments were aggregated from the addresses where the aid was delivered. In most cases the farmer will reside in the state of his farm. But in some cases, farm owner-operators may not live in the same state where the farm exists.
Source: APM Research Lab analysis of Market Facilitation Program payments obtained via FOIA request by Marketplace.
Notes: State-specific payments were aggregated from the addresses where the aid was delivered. In most cases the farmer will reside in the state of his farm. But in some cases, farm owner-operators may not live in the same state where the farm exists.
Source: APM Research Lab analysis of Market Facilitation Program payments obtained via FOIA request by Marketplace.
Notes: State-specific payments were aggregated from the addresses where the aid was delivered. In most cases the farmer will reside in the state of his farm. But in some cases, farm owner-operators may not live in the same state where the farm exists.
