Large-scale farms would disproportionately benefit from a $1.5 billion disaster aid package for which Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) says she's secured funding, according to report by the Environmental Working Group.
Lincoln said she's received assurances from the White House that USDA would fund $1.5 billion administratively for farmers who lost crops in 2009. Democrats agreed to cut the aid from a small business lending bill under consideration by the Senate.
The EWG report projects that the largest share of the aid –– $210 million –– could go to Lincoln 's home state with 270 farms collecting more than $100,000 each in disaster subsidies.
"There's the general question of whether we should be subsidizing these big operations year in and year out," said Ken Cook, president of the Washington-based nonprofit group.
EWG says that because qualifying farmers would receive disaster aid equal to 90 percent of their direct payments in 2009, farmers could see their subsidies nearly double. The biggest prospective recipient, Ratio Farms of Helena-West Helena, Ark., stands to receive $787,000 in disaster aid under the plan, on top of $874,000 in subsidies the operation collected last year, the report said.
"Small farmers who lost their entire crop are likely to get less help than big farmers who still brought in 95 percent of their crops," the group said in its report.
