Well, this is not surprising at all.
Remember all those billions of dollars that President Donald Trump threw at the nation’s agricultural sector to weather the storm during the U.S.-China trade war? It turns out that the richest farmers received a bulk of the federal assistance.
According to a new study by the Environmental Working Group, a critic of agribusiness subsidies, more than half of the $23 billion in payments from the federal government’s Market Facilitation Program went to the top ten percent of farmers.
As hundreds of smaller farms went bust, the wealthier ones thrived.
More from the report:
“A study of $5 billion in payments through June 30 under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, which is intended to help farmers hurt by the pandemic, shows the top 1% of farms receiving 22% of the money, for an average payment of $352,432. The smallest 80% of farms got 23% of the aid, with the average payment $4,677.”
The data will show in a couple of years if the trade war benefited or hurt the American farmers. China is ramping up its purchases of U.S. goods, but it is unclear if this is a short-term gain or a long-term benefit.
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