Cash by the acre (complete article from source)
Source: The Columbus Dispatch, by Monique Curet and Doug Haddix
June 17, 2007
Thousands of Ohioans -- rich, poor and in between -- share millions in federal farm subsidies
Ohio farmers who have made millions in business or real estate also have collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in farm-related aid from federal taxpayers.
Churches and nonprofit groups that own land in the state received payments, as did state, county and city governments.
During the past four years, a diverse group of more than 80,000 Ohioans reaped nearly $1.5 billion in crop and conservation subsidies. Nationally, more than $56 billion was handed out.
The government payments are detailed in a new database from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The database is the first that makes it possible to track payments directly to individuals, rather than to businesses and cooperatives.
Some central Ohio recipients and their four-year totals:
• Farmers Dale, David and Fred Hendren, who received a combined $1.9 million. They were the top three subsidy recipients in Ohio. Fred Hendren, his son David and brother Tom were involved in lucrative land deals several years ago, selling acreage in New Albany for more than $5 million.
• Charles and Ronald D. Rivers, brothers whose Mid-Ohio Chemical company was sold in 1994 for $19 million in common stock and $28 million in preferred stock. The Fayette County farmers received nearly $1 million in subsidies.
• Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks, which received more than $300,000 in conservation funding.
Subsidies, which began in the 1930s as a response to dire economic conditions, fall into more than a dozen categories and are awarded for a variety of activities, including crop production and conservation efforts. One program, for instance, gives lump-sum payments based on the history of a farm's performance, with no restrictions on which crop is grown and no requirement to grow anything at all.
The payments are legal and available to all who qualify. Subsidy payments are under the microscope again, with a battle looming this year in Congress. They're part of the politically sensitive farm bills that are revised about every five years.
One proposal would award subsidies only to farmers with less than $200,000 in annual adjusted gross income.
"The payments themselves are for services rendered," said Adam Sharp, director of national affairs for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. "The theory of it being stuffed into pockets for profit is not the case."
The program was established to ensure a stable, secure and affordable food supply, he said. "The farm bill works. We have those things."
Ben Lilliston, communications director for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, thinks otherwise. The nonprofit group based in Minnesota works to foster sustainable rural communities.
"It's really a broken system," he said.
Lilliston said farm subsidies were cut substantially in 1996. But then commodity prices dropped, and Congress passed several emergency measures to help farmers.
The result: a disorganized system with many loopholes.
Lilliston said his organization believes that food companies and agribusinesses should pay farmers a fair price for their products. The group advocates legislation to establish price floors and create a reserve program. That way, he said, farmers would not need to rely on taxpayer support.
Sizable payments
Some of the Ohio farmers who received sizable subsidies have significant assets or have made money through other ventures.
The Hendren family, for example, sold 270 acres of farmland to the New Albany Co. for an average of $18,700 per acre, according to a 2000 Dispatch report. The family then moved its farming operation.
The Hendrens declined to comment on the subsidy program.
Members of the Wolfe family, owners and publishers of The Dispatch, received nearly $500,000 through another company, Agricultural Lands Inc. Most of the subsidies, which went to 13 family members, involved farmland in Madison County. The company was founded in 1934 and raises crops and hogs, and the subsidies go to farm operations, said a company representative.
The Rivers brothers, who each received $480,918 in farm subsidies, have bought and sold valuable real estate in Florida.
Between 1995 and 2004, one or both of the brothers were the sellers in Sarasota real-estate deals worth more than $4 million.
Charles Rivers died in January. His widow is listed as the owner of a Sarasota property purchased for $1.7 million in 2004.
Ronald Rivers and companies started by both brothers still own at least three other Sarasota properties valued at a combined $3.4 million by the county appraiser.
Ronald Rivers declined an interview.
Farmers often are reluctant to discuss their subsidies.
"I think that it's just like anybody else. You don't like to tell someone else what your paycheck looks like," said Rick Borland, program chief for production adjustment compliance for the Farm Service Agency in Ohio.
Under the current farm bill, every person receiving subsidies must report adjusted gross income to the USDA. To qualify, income from activities other than farming can't exceed an average of $2.5 million over the previous three years, Borland said.
"We need to understand that, historically, farm programs have been about production of certain commodities. It has not been about farmers," said Carl Zulauf, an agricultural economist at Ohio State University.
The primary goal was food security, not farmer support.
"There's all kinds of economic evidence that (subsidies) have indeed stimulated production," Zulauf said. For example, the U.S. traditionally has amassed a stock of crops such as corn. That's an indication that production is being supported by the government, because the market doesn't support large reserves.
Providing steady income
Farmers had some unexpected company in collecting agricultural subsidies: charities, churches and government.
Recipients included 4-H Camp Palmer near Fayette, in Fulton County ($42,269), St. Philip Episcopal Church in Circleville ($17,763), the YMCA of Central Ohio ($15,348) and the Newport Sportsman Club in Fort Loramie ($13,980).
4-H Camp Palmer enrolled about 71 acres in the conservation reserve program, which aims to improve water quality, control erosion and benefit wildlife.
The camp's share included nearly $28,000 in conservation reserve funds, which helped in developing programs and improving facilities, said Jeff Dick, interim camp manager.
"The good thing is that it's guaranteed income," he said, calling the money a small portion of the organization's annual budget of $550,000.
The land in the conservation reserve program is used for education programs for campers. 4-H Camp Palmer has 6,000 overnight visitors each year, most between the ages of 9 and 18, with about 2,000 single-day visitors, Dick said.
Along with nonprofits, government agencies at every level received farm payments.
"I didn't even know those were all farm subsidies," said John O'Meara, Metro Parks executive director, when told of the payments.
Most of the Metro Parks money came from the Wetlands Reserve Program and was used to restore about 300 acres of wetlands at Pickerington Ponds.
The federal money "certainly helps us achieve our conservation mission," O'Meara said.
Dave Risley, executive administrator for wildlife management with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, agreed. The department received more than $76,000 for two conservation programs.
"It's just trying to leverage your money," Risley said. The agency uses the money to restore wetlands and make other improvements, and the land usually is available for public use.
Risley said there's a subtle distinction between payments for crops and payments for conservation, which "helps us restore critical habitat that otherwise would not be restored."
Sharp, with the Ohio Farm Bureau, said that about 20 percent of the farm bill is devoted to subsidies. The total farm bill represents less than 1 percent of the federal budget, he said, "minuscule for the benefit we get out of it."
Click here for complete article from The Columbus Dispatch
|
