Southern farmers get more federal aid per acre than Midwestern peers, Democrats say
The Trump administration has been more generous to southern farmers than their Midwest peers, according to a new report from Senate Democrats.
Under Trump, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made $25 billion in payments to farmers with losses caused by the president’s trade fights with China and other major trading partners.
But the money has not been distributed proportionately, according to a report released Tuesday by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
“While farmers in the Midwest and Northern Plains have been affected the most, Southern farmers have received the highest payment rates,” the report states.
Stabenow’s report focused on the first distribution of 2019. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue’s home state of Georgia received the most money per farm acre, according to the study, at $52.35 per acre. The next four top recipients per acre were all states in the South: Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas.
“Farmers in Georgia have already received over $50 per acre in the first round of 2019 payments, while farmers in 34 other states received $25 or less, including 14 states that received $10 or less,” the report states.
Farmers in Missouri have received $28.70 per acre, 10th highest among all states, according to a graph included in the report. Kansas was 22nd with payments of more than $20.14 per acre.
Sen. Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, called Stabenow’s report partisan.
“I don’t believe that these payments are meant to discriminate against any crop or area. It’s just the way things are now,” Roberts said. “It is what it is based on size and yields and amount of acreage.”
There are 2,901 counties benefiting from the 2019 Market Facilitation Program, but payments per acre vary sharply. A total of 193 counties have seen payments of $100 per acre. All but 10 are located in Southern states.
Stabenow and 14 other Democratic senators sent a letter Tuesday to Perdue asking for the USDA to address the concerns about disproportionate payments based on region.
The USDA rejected the Democratic criticism in a statement, saying that payments are “based on trade damage, not based on region or farm size.”
The USDA used a different measurement to contend— despite the Democratic claims— that Midwestern states have received the most from the program overall.
“More than 560,000 farmers across the United States have received payments under the 2019 MFP program. To date, the Midwest region has received more than 60% of the funds and the top 5 recipient states from the 2019 MFP program are Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska & Minnesota, which directly refutes the claims made in this report,” the statement said.
“While we appreciate feedback on this program, the fact of the matter is that USDA has provided necessary funding to help farmers who have been impacted by unjustified retaliatory tariffs. While criticism is easy to come up with, we welcome constructive feedback from any member of Congress with recommendations as to how the program could be better administered.”
Ryan Flickner, senior director of the Kansas Farm Bureau, said you can come up with vastly different conclusions about which states benefited most whether you calculate by bushel, by acre or by overall aid.
The bigger issue for Kansas farmers is the continued damage of the trade fight rather than which states got the most aid, he said. “At the end of the day, our members would much rather have trade than aid given the current financial situation in farm country,” Flickner said.
Donn Teske, the president of the Kansas Farmers Union, said the payments vary between counties within states, but that in most cases they do not come close to making up for the losses farmers have experienced as a result of the trade fight.
“It doesn’t even make sense county to county. From county to county, it varies. Crop to crop. It’s just kind of weird how it’s all shaking out. And as much money as it is it’s still just a fraction of what happened to the marketplace,” said Teske, who owns a farm in Wheaton, Kansas.
Despite widespread frustration with the trade fight, Teske said he expects most farmers in the state to stick with Trump in the 2020 election.
“’What’s the Matter with Kansas?’ is right on the money in this case,” Teske said in reference to Thomas Frank’s 2004 book about the how state’s politics lean conservative even in the face of policies that can be economically damaging.
The Democratic report faulted the USDA’s formula for not correlating closely enough to the damage caused by the trade war.
Soybeans, a Midwest staple, saw prices drop in 2018, while upland cotton, a crop that flourishes in the south, saw its prices rise. Nevertheless, upland cotton received a larger payment out of the program, according to the report.
In addition, farmers in the Midwest who cannot sell to China because of retaliatory tariffs are farther away from alternative markets than their southern peers.
“While the impacts of the retaliatory tariffs are widespread, the payments rates have not aligned to help the regions harmed the most,” the report states.
This story was originally published November 12, 2019 at 12:19 PM.
