🚩 Red Flags: When USDA Policy Fails the People Who Grow Our Food

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For decades, American farm policy has promised to protect farmers, stabilize prices, and ensure the safety of our food supply. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll see that the system often serves the biggest players — large industrial farms, commodity brokers, and corporate middlemen — while small and mid-sized farmers are left scraping by. Even worse, many of these programs don’t necessarily help Big Ag either; they keep everyone stuck in a cycle that favors volume over value, exports over local nourishment, and politics over people.

Here are ten red flags that show just how far we’ve drifted from a food system that truly works for both farmers and eaters.

1. Billions in subsidies go to a handful of commodity crops

In 2024, U.S. farmers received about $9.3 billion in federal commodity subsidies, mostly for corn, soy, cotton, and wheat (USAFacts). These are the crops that fill feedlots and fuel tanks—not farmers’ markets. Subsidies for fruits, vegetables, and other “specialty crops” are a rounding error by comparison. That means the government effectively incentivizes the production of cheap calories instead of nutritious, local food.

2. Crop insurance protects corn and soy, while fruit and vegetable farmers are left out

Federal crop insurance is supposed to be a safety net, but it mostly covers large monocrops. In 2022, 62 percent of row-crop farms (including corn, soy, and wheat) carried insurance, compared to just 9 percent of fruit and vegetable farms (USDA ERS). That’s not because small farmers don’t want protection—it’s because the system was never designed for them. Specialty-crop insurance products are rare, complex, and often too expensive to be worth it.

3. The top 10 percent of farms collect 75 percent of payments

If you’ve ever wondered who actually gets federal farm money, here’s your answer: the biggest farms. Between 1985 and 2024, the top 10 percent of recipients took home nearly three-quarters of all government payments (Environmental Working Group). In other words, the system that’s supposed to help “family farms” has become one of the country’s most effective wealth-concentration tools.

4. “Conservation” programs often reward acreage, not action

Programs like EQIP and CSP were meant to pay farmers to protect soil, conserve water, and improve biodiversity. But loopholes and weak oversight allow industrial operations to collect conservation payments even when their practices cause pollution elsewhere. GAO audits repeatedly flag limited monitoring and accountability. In some cases, big farms are literally paid to comply with standards they already met—or that they continue to violate.

5. Farm Bill dollars prop up middlemen more than working farmers

The Farm Bill is one of the largest pieces of legislation in the federal budget, but much of its funding benefits intermediaries: insurers, input suppliers, and agribusiness corporations. Crop insurance, for example, channels billions of dollars through private insurance companies, which are subsidized by taxpayers. These programs stabilize commodity markets but do little to stabilize the livelihoods of farmers. When money bypasses the people actually growing food, rural communities lose both income and resilience.

6. Disaster aid arrives long after the disaster

When floods, droughts, or wildfires strike, small farmers can’t wait months—or years—for help. Yet USDA emergency aid often does just that. GAO reviews show repeated delays in application processing and payments, favoring those with lawyers and lobbyists. Meanwhile, a diversified vegetable grower who loses an entire season’s crop might be left to start over alone. The problem isn’t just bureaucracy; it’s that the system assumes scale equals need, when the opposite is often true.

7. Rural development money funds data centers, not farms

“Rural development” sounds like it should strengthen rural economies—but in practice, it’s often a real-estate subsidy. Federal programs have financed data centers, warehouses, and industrial parks that create few permanent jobs and almost no agricultural infrastructure. Rural landscapes get rezoned, paved over, and “developed,” but farming communities rarely see the benefits. It’s development without roots.

8. Nutrition programs are political footballs while subsidies soar

Every Farm Bill season, funding for SNAP, WIC, and other food access programs becomes a partisan bargaining chip. Yet crop insurance subsidies—already ballooning to more than $11 billion in 2022 (NSAC)—sail through with bipartisan support. That means we keep paying for overproduction of cheap calories while cutting support for the people who can’t afford fresh food. It’s a cruel irony: the same bill that grows the nation’s food also makes it harder for millions to eat well.

9. “Regenerative” has become the new “natural," undefined and unverified

The term regenerative agriculture once described holistic practices like cover cropping, rotational grazing, and composting. Now it’s a marketing slogan. Without clear standards or federal definitions, corporations can claim “regenerative” credentials without changing much at all. Soil health experts and watchdog groups warn that the USDA’s lack of regulation lets greenwashing thrive—and makes it harder for genuine regenerative farmers to stand out.

10. Trade wars turn farmers into pawns

When the U.S. and China traded tariffs during the late 2010s, farmers bore the brunt. To soften the blow, the USDA distributed billions in bailout payments, mostly to the biggest producers of soy and corn. According to the Government Accountability Office, the top recipients pocketed as much as $18 million each per year in federal aid. Small diversified farms received little or nothing. These quick political fixes don’t solve systemic problems; they just entrench inequality.

The Pattern Behind the Policies

Each of these red flags points to a bigger truth: our agricultural system isn’t broken—it’s working exactly as designed. Policies written decades ago to stabilize commodity prices still define who gets help and who doesn’t. As farms have consolidated, the money has followed size, not need.

But this isn’t just about fairness. It’s about the future of food. When policies reward monocultures, factory feedlots, and corporate supply chains, we all lose resilience. Local food systems weaken. Soil degrades. Farmers quit. Communities hollow out. And eaters are left with cheap food that costs us dearly in health, climate, and culture.

What We Could Do Instead

Imagine if USDA support flowed toward farmers who:

• Grow nutrient-dense food for local markets

• Protect soil and water on working lands

• Employ people in their communities

• Diversify crops and income streams

• Keep farmland in farmer hands

Redirecting even a fraction of federal spending could help rebuild regional food economies, restore ecosystems, and ensure that small and mid-sized farms can survive the next storm, whether it's economic or environmental.

The People’s Role

Big policy change takes time. But people power works faster. We can:

• Buy directly from local farms and farmers’ markets.

• Support organizations (like For Farmers) that fund small-scale producers without red tape.

• Nominate farmers for grants, fulfill their wish lists, and share their stories.

• Hold legislators accountable for how the Farm Bill money is actually spent.

Our food system won’t change until we expect more from it. The USDA’s programs might not yet serve small farmers well, but we can because real reform starts with the people who care about what’s on their plate and who put it there.

Sources: USAFacts, USDA Economic Research Service, Environmental Working Group, Government Accountability Office, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

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Dana DiPrima is leading a national movement to support small American Farmers because our health, communities, environment, and regional economies depend on it. The For Farmers Movement supports farmers by sharing their stories, replacing myths with facts, and providing them with grants and other helpful resources.

Dana is also the host of One Bite is Everything, the podcast that connects the food on your plate to the bigger world by sharing conversations with thought leaders, helpful tips, and monthly recaps of key issues on the food and policy scene. One Bite is Everything is a proud member of Heritage Radio Network, home to some of the most influential voices in food.

Dana authors a weekly letter in addition to this blog. You can subscribe here. You can join the For Farmers Movement to support your local farmers here. You can also follow Dana on Instagram.