They’re tiny.
Schechinger ’21 [Anne; February 24; Senior Analyst of Economics at the Environmental Working Group, M.S. in Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics from Michigan State University, B.A. in Economics and Environmental Studies from Kalamazoo College; Environmental Working Group, “Under Trump, Farm Subsidies Soared and the Rich Got Richer – Biden and Congress Must Reform a Wasteful and Unfair System,” https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/2021-farm-subsidies-ballooned-under-trump/; pbk]
EWG’s analysis of records from the Department of Agriculture finds that subsidy payments to farmers ballooned from just over $4 billion in 2017 to more than $20 billion in 2020 – driven largely by ad hoc programs meant to offset the effects of President Trump’s failed trade war.
Not only did the amount of subsidies skyrocket, but the richest farms also increased their share: In 2016, about 17 percent of total subsidies went to the top 1 percent of farms and about 60 percent to the top 10th. In 2019, the richest 1 percent received almost one-fourth of the total, and the top 10th received almost two-thirds.1
The staggering growth of subsidies and the worsening inequity in distribution underscore the urgency for the Biden administration and the new Congress to enact commonsense farm subsidy reforms that will benefit small, struggling farmers and the environment and make up for the mistakes of the Trump years.