EWG Database Update Shows Top 10% of Farms Collect 78% of Subsidies

The Environmental Working Group released an updated version of its Farm Subsidy Database in June 2023, showing that the top 10% of subsidy recipients continued to collect approximately 78% of all federal farm payments. The database tracked $478 billion in total payments from 1995 through 2022 and showed the concentration worsening with each Farm Bill reauthorization cycle. Small farms representing 89% of all operations received less than 25% of payments despite producing nearly half of U.S. agricultural output.