Farmers are flush with cash, as exports soar, income and profits reach record highs, and subsidies hit historic levels. And now crop groups are asking Congress for even more money.
The leaders of major crop organizations used a March 1 House Agriculture Committee hearing as a vehicle for seeking a further hike in taxpayer dollars.
During testimony delivered at the hearing, leaders from the corn, soybean, wheat, cotton, peanut, rice and other industry groups representing farmers growing subsidized crops urged legislators to increase price guarantees when Congress renews the farm bill in 2023.
The farm groups are asking for a raise, even though:
- Net farm income is near record levels. The Department of Agriculture has reported that net farm income was $119 billion in 2021 – the highest level since the boom years that followed the ethanol mandate.
- Net cash farm income will set records. The USDA forecasts farmers will gross $512 billion in 2022, and will enjoy net cash farm income of $136.1 billion – the highest return on investment ever reported.
- Farm exports will also set record. The USDA expects the value of farm and food exports to reach $177.5 billion, a new record.
- Farm subsidies have soared to historic levels. In the past three years, farmers received $95 billion in farm subsidies – or nearly the same amount of farm subsidies farmers had received in the previous 10 years combined.
- Farm household income is well above median U.S. household income. Median farm household income is forecast to be $88,234 – also a new record, and well above median U.S. household income.
- Very large farms have annual household income above $1 million. “Family farms” with sales above $5 million enjoyed median farm household income topping $1 million in 2020.
The crop groups are asking for more money from taxpayers even though experts have found many farmers were grossly overpaid in recent years by programs designed to offset the impacts of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Government Accountability Office, or GAO, recently found the USDA overpaid corn farmers by about $3 billion. Yesterday, a representative for the National Corn Growers Association testified without irony that it’s not their “style” to rely on government handouts every year.
The GAO previously found the Market Facilitation Program, or MFP, created to address damage from the trade war, paid cotton farmers 33 times more than the costs of the damage. Yesterday, a representative for the National Cotton Council urged Congress to make the MFP permanent.
The same GAO report also showed that soybean farmers were overpaid by the MFP.
By any measure, farmers are enjoying boom times. Although some farming costs, like fertilizer, are forecast to grow, the USDA has found expected increases in crop prices will more than make up the difference. Times are so good that farm subsidies – many of which are triggered by crop prices – are expected to be lower. (Naturally, the representative for the Soybean Association of America complained the triggers are too low.)
By contrast, food inflation is devastating people living in poverty who rely on food assistance. Unlike farmers, the average household depending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has gross monthly income below $900.
Did any of the crop groups testifying before the House Agriculture Committee yesterday support increases in the standard benefit for SNAP? Of course not.
The database tracks $425 billion in farm subsidies from commodity, crop insurance, disaster programs and conservation payments paid between 1995 and 2020
