In 2003 Minnesota was the nation's sixth largest recipient of farm subsidy payments, dropping from fifth the prior year, according to a report by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog agency. Farmers in the Moorhead area received the largest portion of government farm subsidies to Minnesota producers,
Nearly $782 million in payments went to over 80,000 Minnesota recipients, including absentee landowners, according to the group that publishes an annual report on federal farm subsidy payments.
Corn led the list of commodity subsidies, to the tune of more than $260 million in payments to over 51,500 recipients-twice the amount of soybean subsides.
Nationally, 10 percent of the subsidy recipients (about 305,000 farm operations) received 72 percent of the total payments, or about $34,000 annually over the past eight years.
—Kathy Cobb
