Looks like the debate over agricultural subsidies is rising as the squeeze on the federal budget continues:
$1.3 billion crop subsidies shelled out to nonfarmers, by Dan Morgan, Gilbert M. Gaul, Sarah Cohen, Washington Post, Sunday, July 2, 2006
If you are interested, start by taking a look at who is getting subsidies in your neighborhood:
EWG Farm Subsidy Database
http://www.ewg.org/farm/
As background, Wikipedia provides an overview of agricultural subsidies, as follows:
“The U.S. Agricultural Department is required by law to subsidize over two dozen commodities. Between 1996 and 2002, an average of $16 billion/year was paid by programs authorized by federal legislation dating back to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, the Agricultural Act of 1949, and the CCC Charter Act of 1948, among others.”
“The beneficiaries of the subsidies have changed as U.S. agriculture changes. In the 1930s, about a quarter of the U.S. population resided on the nation’s six million small farms. By 1997, 157,000 large farms accounted for 72% of farm sales, with only 2% of the U.S. population residing on farms.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#United_States
The last time I looked at the top contractors at the US Department of Agriculture, I found it pretty interesting. Here is a 1997 ranking from Government Executive Magazine:
Top Contractors at the Agriculture Department
http://www.govexec.com/top200/topag.htm
To learn about the top contractors in your state for all federal agencies and to track the largest grant flows, check out the EagleEyeInc.com database:
EagleEyeInc.com – searchable database of govt contractors (Eagle Eye has been purchased by Bloomberg and this data is no longer available for free.)
Eagle Eye is a great place to start looking at the data on your place. For an example of how to start finding the data, check out the links we put together for our audio seminar on Kalispell, Montana:
Welcome to Kalispell – Local Links
http://www.solariactionnetwork.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=6792