Food is Freedom: How Washington’s Food Subsidies Have Helped Make Americans Fat and Sick

Farm subsidies are the most expensive subsidy that Washington gives out - $20 billion dollars every year is spent on them. These subsidies are rarely discussed and though you may hope that these subsidies go to small farmers, that simply isn't the case.

Here is a breakdown on some of the spending:

Over 6,000 farming companies and combines received more than $1 million federal aid in the years between 2008 and 2018.

This constituted a total of over $11 billion in this 10-year period.

18 different farming entities received over $10 million.

Over $626 million went to urban areas – i.e., places with over 250,000 residents and precisely zero farms. The five most populated cities in America (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia) received a collective $18 million in farm subsidies. 25 percent of all subsidies went to someone receiving over $250,000 in subsidies.

The 150 most affluent zip codes in America received $5 million in subsidies in 2017 alone.

What’s more, the government is still paying farmers to not farm.

12 members of Congress received as much as $637,059 in farm subsidies in 2017.

The factory farming and big agriculture that we hear horror stories about is thanks to these subsidies. The rising epidemic of obesity is also a result of these subsidies. The only way to fix these problems is by getting rid of the cause, the farm subsidies.

For the full history of farm subsidies check out our article Food is Freedom: How Washington’s Food Subsidies Have Helped Make Americans Fat and Sick at Ammo.com.