California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

This week the non-profit Environmental Working Group, released information that
illustrates that farms located in 4 out of the top 5 counties in the nation that
receive farm subsidies are located in California.

Fresno is ranked #1, followed by Kern at #3, Colusa at #4 and Tulare at #5. 
California farmers received $9.1 billion in federal farm subsidies between 1995
and 2009, according to the records obtained and analyzed by the non-profit.  But
while farms in these counties received some of the highest amounts of farm subsidies
in the nation, California on a whole received 9.1 in federal farm subsidies,
comprising only a little under 4 percent of the total amount of the federal
subsidies provided since 1995, that being $245.2 billion.

In fact, other farm states are far more reliant on crop subsidies than California.
Only about 10 percent of California's farmers receive subsidies, In wheat-rich Iowa,
an estimated 71 percent of growers receive federal payments. Despite the abundant
payments to certain Central Valley counties, California ranks ninth among states
for total subsidies received.

Congressional lawmakers are in the midst of drawing up a new farm bill, a once-every-
five-years effort where the crop subsidy programs are identified, created, refined
and even eliminated. This week, members of the House Agriculture Committee met in
Fresno as part of the 2012 farm bill preparations.

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.

The records – viewable at www.ewg.org