Kicking City Slickers Off Of The Federal Farm Subsidy
With a new definition coming soon, many wealthy urban residents just might be booted off of their substantial federal subsidy. It couldn’t happen fast enough.
Last year, our organization, American Transparency at OpenTheBooks.com, issued our Federal Transfer Report on farm subsidies. We studied three urban areas where there are no farms: New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C. We found they were awash in federal farm subsidies.The federal farm program was originally intended to “protect the national food supply” and “preserve the family farm.” Yet, our findings showed wealthy investors piggy-backing on a growing government program – the largess of farm subsidies had become part of their investment portfolio. Many of these wealthy investors don’t live in “rural areas,” but instead utilize “farm managers” and taxpayer dollars to maximize return on their “farm” investments.
The amounts are significant with the top 10,806 entities receiving billions. For example, just 491 entities received over $1 million in farm subsidies amounting to over $725.7 million (2008-2011) and averaged $1.734 million each.
In New York City, Wall Street financiers, Rockefellers, wealthy heirs and Upper East Side recipients all received subsidies. Even the non-profit National Audubon Society collected nearly $1 million in subsidies including New York tobacco subsidies and Minnesota lamb slaughter aid.
In Chicago, IL, the city ranks seventh out of over 1,200 municipalities in the state in the receipt of federal farm subsidies. It’s 930 individual entities collecting the subsidy including wealthy traders at the Board of Trade and downtown duck charities reaping millions. Even Reverend Minister Louis Farrakhan, the founder of the Nation of Islam, opened up two charities and collected over $317,000 of farm subsidies and commodities loans during a sixteen year period. Interestingly, the IRS and Illinois Attorney General have no record of either charity.