The farms that surrounded my suburban childhood home in eastern Pennsylvania were small, family-owned affairs. As a boy, it was hard to find similarity between these plots and the supermarkets, Italian restaurants and tennis shops that displaced them. But farming, I learned, is no less a business than a bank.
What I’ve recently found most interesting, surprising and disturbing about the big agriculture business is how hard it leans on the federal government for assistance.
With Congress set to begin debating a new farm bill next year, three Washington Post reporters spent the past several months investigating federal farm subsidies. What did they find? Despite near-record revenues last year, American farmers used more than $25 billion in subsidies.
People have been debating the functionality of federal farm subsidies for years. Here’s a recent piece from The Economist. This year’s series from The Post, though, is particularly expansive, making it a great point of departure for reporters who’ve recently started covering the industry.
With nearly a billion acres of American land devoted to farming, this is a story we’d all be wise to keep an eye on.
You can find out how much money the government is sending to farms in your state or town here.