A farmer operates a combine to harvest soybeans in Wyanet, Ill. Farmers got more than $22 billion in government payments in 2019. It's the highest level of farm subsidies in 14 years. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
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farm subsidies
A tractor pulls a planter through a field as corn is planted in Princeton, Ill. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images hide caption
Land in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota, as in much of the country, is dominated by farming. Richard Hamilton Smith/Getty Images hide caption
Surplus corn is piled outside a storage silo in Paoli, Colo. Do federal farm subsidies encourage the production — and perhaps overconsumption — of things that we're told to eat less of, like high fructose corn syrup or meat produced from livestock raised on subsidized grains? Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images hide caption
Many farmers are selling unused or out-of-date equipment to make money in a year when grain prices are low. Grant Gerlock/Harvest Public Media hide caption
A farmer deposits harvested corn outside a grain elevator in Virginia, Ill., in 2015. Corn and soy have fallen, and farmers are receiving payments under a new program. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that total government aid to farmers will swell to $23.9 billion in 2017. Seth Perlman/AP hide caption