Study: Oklahoma farm subsidies total $5.40 billion from 1995 to 2010
Published: June 30th, 2011
Farm subsidies in Oklahoma have totaled $5.40 billion from 1995-2010, according to a summary of government data from the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The organization pulled together information from a variety of official sources for the 15-year period encompassed in the study.
Of the $5.4 billion total for Oklahoma subsidies, $3.10 billion were for commodities, $645 million for crop insurance, $757 million in conservation payments, and $805 million in disaster subsidies.
In 2010, Oklahoman’s secured $369,337,300 in subsidies, 2.4% of the national total — enough to rank Oklahoma fifteenth highest of all the states. The Sooner State ranks just behind Montana, and just ahead of Wisconsin, in total subsidies for the studied period.
Cumulatively, wheat was the top source of subsidies since 1995, totaling $2,573,992,516.
Despite the hefty sums, Oklahoma’s total falls far behind the subsidies received in Iowa, Texas, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota. The top four subsidized states total more than $10 billion each since 1995, while Minnesota’s total came in at $9,851,358,806.
Although the substantial disbursements are noteworthy, 69 percent of farmers in Oklahoma did not take subsidy payments, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Ten percent of farmers collected 72 percent of all the subsidies, according to EWG’s summary.
The top 10 percent of recipients averaged $19,862 per year between 1995 and 2010; the bottom 10 percent averaged $461.
In the most recent data, the top federal subsidy recipient was Hitch Farms Partnership of Guymon, with subsidies totaling $4,848,254. Number two was Long Family Farms Partnership ($3,191,955, Optima), followed by Wooderson Farms ($2,391,113, Blackwell), Duane Stevens ($2,313,816, Anadarko) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs ($2,283,251,Anadarko). Rounding out the top ten were Fischer & Fischer of Hooker, Paul Horton Farms, Inc. of Hollis, Glass Farms of Alva, Webb & Webb of Guymon, and S&M Farms of Guymon.
The data analysis and summary drills down to counties and congressional districts, and is available on an annualized basis from 2003 forward.
The Environmental Working Group operates from offices in the nation’s capital, as well as in Sacramento and Oakland, California, and in Ames, Iowa. EWG’s mission is characterized, on the institutional website, as “to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment.”
The group is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, with an affiliated (c)(4) that “advocates on Capitol Hill for health-protective and subsidy-shifting policies.”