The Donald Trump administration could be proud of paying farmers record amounts from the state budget if this were not a step of despair.
About this writes the American publication “Politico”.
Now the Ministry of Agriculture is literally flooding the industry with cash. The amount of support has already reached historical levels, but such expenses are a consequence of the trade wars unleashed by Trump. It got to the point that American farmers became dependent on state aid, and stopping the infusion would bring down the entire industry.
According to the publication, if in 2017, assistance to farmers amounted to 11.5 billion dollars, now now they are paid in aggregate over 32 billion now. Moreover, the amount is not final, given the economic crisis provoked by the pandemic.
Back in January, Trump announced that he considered his policy of helping farmers a blessing. The expert community fears that such a practice creates a “culture of dependence”. In order to receive subsidies, farmers have to come up with grandiose development plans, which in reality are not being implemented.
“This is a big problem for agriculture because it is not sustainable,” says Ann Schechinger, senior economic analyst at the Environmental Working Group.
Neil Hamilton, a professor at the Drake University Center for Agricultural Law, in turn, emphasizes that large-scale subsidies are a problem for taxpayers, given that Congress does not control this program.
“It’s just, they say, keep your check,” he says. “There is incredible trust here that farmers will use the money wisely.”
Politico notes that spending growth began exactly in mid-2018. Then the Ministry of Agriculture had to give money to farmers in order to compensate them for the losses from the trade war with the PRC unleashed by Trump. Then, farm sales to China fell from $ 19.5 billion in 2017 to $ 9 billion. Moreover, in 2019, the number of bankrupt farmers grew by almost 20%.