Pork Farmers

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama farmers received $1.43 billion in federal subsidies during the last nine years, with 121 farms collecting more than $1 million each.

Figures were compiled by a group called the Environmental Working Group that lobbies againt farm subsidies. The money included $544 million for cotton subsidies, $236 million for disaster subsidies, $229 for peanut subsidies, and $198 for conservation subsidies.

In Alabama, 12,863 farms, or 29 percent of the state's farms, received federal subsidies. Of those, 1,123 received $250,000 or more during the nine-year period.

The federal support for Alabama included $163 million in 2002-2003 for a one-time federal buyout of peanut quotas. One of the farmers who benefitted was U.S. Rep. Terry Everett, R-Rehobeth, who received about $27,000 from 1995-2003 forpeanuts grown on his 400-acre farm near Dothan, the report said.

Everett, who crafted the peanut buyout as a senior member of the House Agriculture Committee, said he promoted the transformation of the peanut program from a quota system to a price support system to help U.S. growers fight an increase in cheaper imported peanuts.

"My purpose was to try to save an industry that was going to go down," Everett said. "Obviously, we had to do something to be competitive."

Everett takes issue with the group's criticism of the subsidies."They love to eat, but they don't appreciate the fact that the subsidies help American farmers produce some of the cheapest food in the world," he said.

But, as this article shows, many, if not most of the beneficiaries of subsidies are large farming operations, contrary to the claims of some subsidy supporters. The top 10 subsidy recipients in Alabama each received over $3 million in federal payments. Not exactly the "small family farmer" there.