AFA Data Sources & Attributing Subsidies
We’re often asked, “What are AFA’s Sources?”
Here’s a listing of many of our sources, beginning with examples of documents you can find from the our own government agencies.
Government Agencies
CRS
Otherwise knows as the Library of Congress, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) works exclusively for the United States Congress, providing policy and legal analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of party affiliation.
CRS: The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) In Brief (updated Jan 14, 2021)
GAO
The U.S. Government Accountability Office is the organization that members of Congress request research from. It’s considered to be highly objective. The tagline of the GAO is “A Century of Non-Partisan Fact-Based Work.”
GAO: USDA Market Facilitation Program: Information on Payments for 2019
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency’s mission is to protect human health and the environment.
EPA Inventory of U.S. GHG Emissions & Sinks Ch5 1990-2019: Agriculture (updated 2021
EPA Inventory of Greenhouse Gases, Ch5 Agriculture: 2019 edition
ERS (USDA)
The mission of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service is to anticipate trends and emerging issues in agriculture, food, the environment, and rural America and to conduct high-quality, objective economic research to inform and enhance public and private decision-making.
USDA Budget Summaries FY2020, FY2019
NASS (USDA)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Statistics Services (NASS) publishes well, ag statistics. If there’s an ag statistic you want, you’re likely to find it in the Annual Agricultural Statistics PDF documents published annually.
USDA NASS Annual Agricultural Statistics
USDA NASS Annual Cold Storage Report
CBO
Since 1975, the Congressional Budget Office has produced independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues to support the Congressional budget process. Each year, the agency’s economists and budget analysts produce dozens of reports and hundreds of cost estimates for proposed legislation.
CBO is strictly nonpartisan; conducts objective, impartial analysis; and hires its employees solely on the basis of professional competence without regard to political affiliation. CBO does not make policy recommendations, and each report and cost estimate summarizes the methodology underlying the analysis. Learn more about CBO’s commitment to objectivity and transparency.
CBO Report: What if Crop Insurance Subsidies were Reduced?
National Agriculture Law Center
NALC Farm Bills page: https://nationalaglawcenter.org/farmbills/
2020 Farm Subsidy, Bailout Top Level Numbers
Total Cash Payments ($46.3 billion)
- Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 1 - $10.5 billion
- Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2 - $13.2 billion
- PPP (COVID relief) - $7.9 billion
- Title 1 Commodities: ARC / PLC Commodities - $6.2 billion
- Title II Conservation (EQIP, CSP, CIG, etc) -$3.8 billion
- (CCC Act) Market Facilitation Program -$3.7 billion
- Disaster Relief WHIP, Livestock programs, other -$1.4 billion
- Title 1 Commodities: Dairy Margin Coverage - $150 million
Other Subsidies Not considered Direct Cash Payments
- Title XI Crop Insurance - $6.3 billion
- BLM & UFS Grazing discounts - $100 million
* Extrapolated & prorated from 2019 data until 2020 data is published
Subsidy Primers
- The Farm Bill Overview, by USDA
- The Farm Bill by CRS
USDA Slaughter Stats
- Poultry Slaughter (monthly)
- Poultry Slaughter (annual)
- Livestock Slaughter (monthly)
- Livestock Slaughter (annual)
USDA Stats
- Annual Cash Payments By Program
- Farm Bill Spending (ERS)
- USDA – “All meat statistics”
- Annual USDA dataset containing statistics on production, supply, and use of milk and other manufactured dairy products, incl exports.
- U.S. milk production and related data (quarterly and annual)
- Livestock and Meat International Trade Data by Country
Supply, Demand, Stockpiles
- Cold Storage Report (NASS)
- Meat & Cheese Stockpiles Visualized (VOX)
- Industrial Food Animal Production Primer
- US Sales Dairy Drops 11%
- NASS Livestock Slaughter Survey
- Cheese Glut US
- Non Dairy Milk Alternatives Experiencing Holy Cow Moment
- Surplus Meat & Dairy Strain US Storage
- Food Banks Dealing with Meat & Cheese Surplus
- 2019 Meat Production & Consumption
- Giant Pork Surplus and Trade Wars
- Meat in Decline
- Consuming the surplus: expanding “meat” consumption and animal oppression
NGOs
- Costs and Consequences: The real price of grazing on US Public Lands .pdf - The Center for Biological Diversity
- Structural Racism Present in the U.S. Food System - Michigan State University, Center for Regional Food Systems
Environmental Impact
Global Warming Potentials (CH4)
- 10 year GWP 104x (with feedback effects 130x)
- 20 year GWP 84x
- 100 year GWP 28.5x
IPCC AR5 Ch8 Supplemental Material. (page 39)
The way to read these: “Over a ten year period, methane (CH4) warms the earth 104 times more the equivalent mass of CO2 over the same period.“
- The Oxford Study: Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers
- EPA Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2017 – Ch 5: Agriculture
- IPCC AR5 Ch8 (CH4 = 104x more potent than CO2 – page 39)
- Grazed & Confused: “Regenerative Agriculture.
(Local copy of report) - Scientific American: Deadly Algae
- Livestock and Climate Change.pdf
- Sources & Solutions: Deadly Algae (EPA)
- Manure & Algal Blooms
Subsidy Trackers
Environmental Working Group
- EWG Subsidy Primer
- EWG Subsidy Search
- Ag Sector Rollup (soybean example)
- Dairy, livestock, corn, wheat, sugarbeet, sorghum
Good Jobs First
Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM)
- Dairy Checkoff Program 400 million not reported (OCM)
Governments Reports
- The GAO Report detailing 2019 $14.5 billion in MFP Payments to American Farms (pdf)
- The Evolution of Milk Pricing and Government Intervention in Dairy Markets (Cornell University) (pdf)
Checkoff Programs
Lobbying & Campaign Contributions
Opensecrets.org Lobbying and Campaign Contributions
The Farm Bill
Cambridge U. “Contextualizing the Farm Bill: questions of food, land and agricultural governance”
Supply Chain Transparency
Legal Violation Tracker
violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org
Nate Hagens Blindspots and Superheros
Nathan John Hagens is a former Wall Street analyst, turned college professor and systems-science advocate. Nate has an MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Natural Resources/Energy from the University of Vermont. He is on the Boards of Post Carbon Institute, Institute for Integrated Economic Research, and Institute for the Study of Energy and our Future. He teaches a class at the University of Minnesota called "Reality 101 - A Survey of the Human Predicament”.
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