EWG billionaire study draws fire
November 18, 2013 | 04:00 PM
An Environmental Working Group study released November 7 that billionaires have gotten farm subsidies has drawn fire in the agricultural media and from farm groups.
The study, which concluded that 50 billionaires had gotten $11.3 million in taxpayer-funded subsidies between 1995 and 2012, got positive stories in general-interest publications such as The New York Times and Time magazine, but DTN, an Omaha-based agricultural news service, looked closely at the data and noted that most of the subsidies had gone to billionaires before 2008 when reforms were put in place.
“In fact, since 2008, only two or three of the farms owned by billionaires had received any farm payments at all. I scanned through the list of 50 billionaire farms provided by EWG and found two farms that collectively received $185,000 total,” Chris Clayton, a DTN reporter wrote.
“Thus, since the last farm bill was passed, 48 of those farms owned by billionaires had not received anything.”
EWG said the study proved that means tests and reporting requirements should be imposed on federally subsidized crop insurance since that program did not come under the reform regime.
But Farm Policy Facts, a newsletter sponsored by a number of farm organizations, said the use of the dated information showed “it is time to tune out EWG.”
Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Ron Kind, D-Wis., said the study showed the need to reform farm subsidies.
An aide to DeLauro noted, noted, however, that when she wrote to each of the billionaires to ask for an accounting of their farm subsidies, she asked what they had received since the reforms were adopted in 2008.
The study, which concluded that 50 billionaires had gotten $11.3 million in taxpayer-funded subsidies between 1995 and 2012, got positive stories in general-interest publications such as The New York Times and Time magazine, but DTN, an Omaha-based agricultural news service, looked closely at the data and noted that most of the subsidies had gone to billionaires before 2008 when reforms were put in place.
“In fact, since 2008, only two or three of the farms owned by billionaires had received any farm payments at all. I scanned through the list of 50 billionaire farms provided by EWG and found two farms that collectively received $185,000 total,” Chris Clayton, a DTN reporter wrote.
“Thus, since the last farm bill was passed, 48 of those farms owned by billionaires had not received anything.”
EWG said the study proved that means tests and reporting requirements should be imposed on federally subsidized crop insurance since that program did not come under the reform regime.
But Farm Policy Facts, a newsletter sponsored by a number of farm organizations, said the use of the dated information showed “it is time to tune out EWG.”
Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Ron Kind, D-Wis., said the study showed the need to reform farm subsidies.
An aide to DeLauro noted, noted, however, that when she wrote to each of the billionaires to ask for an accounting of their farm subsidies, she asked what they had received since the reforms were adopted in 2008.
