Do billionaires get farm subsidies?

A blockbuster report by the Government Accountability Office revealed that more than 1,300 “high-income” farmers received subsidies from the federal crop insurance program. But Congress has barred the Department of Agriculture from disclosing the names of these subsidy recipients. 

Many U.S. billionaires own farms and ranches that are eligible for federal crop insurance subsidies. But are they among the 1,341 farmers whose annual average farm household income is more than $900,000? Some members of Congress would like you to know. 

Image Stan Kroenke (San Diego Union-Tribune)	Image Brad Kelley (Forbes)
Image J.R. Simplot (Wikipedia)	Image The Resnicks (Forbes)

Based on the most recent records from The Land Report magazine, EWG found that Bill Gates and other billionaires who own massive amounts of farm and ranch land could be eligible for farm subsidies for producing crops and livestock.

Bill Gates' Hundred Circle Farm in southern Washington.

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Some farm subsidies – including subsidies for “covered commodities” – are subject to a means test that sets an upper income limit above which people can’t receive them. Such thresholds help to keep certain subsidies out of the hands of billionaires.

But crop insurance subsidies, which represent the largest share of federal farm subsidies, aren’t subject to a means test, which means billionaires may be getting them based on the crops and livestock they produce.

Nearly half of the nation’s top 100 landowners are billionaires, according to publicly available data, and many include farms and ranches among their holdings.

• Billionaire Stan Kroenke owns 1.6 million acres of land, including the largest ranch in Montana. USDA data suggests he raises cattle and grows alfalfa, hay, barley and corn.
• Brad Kelley, who built his billion-dollar fortune on discount cigarettes, owns an entire mountain range and dozens of ranches.
• The Simplot family's Idaho-based farm and food business includes more than 400,000 acres of potatoes and other crops.
• Billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick own almost 200,000 acres of farmland, growing orchards of pomegranates and pistachios.

Many of the billionaires whose records EWG examined produce crops and livestock that are eligible for crop insurance subsidies.

The 43 billionaires among the nation’s top 100 landowners

Gates’ farms grow crops such as potatoes, carrots, onions, corn, sweet corn and alfalfa on 275,000 acres in 18 states. All of these crops, except carrots, are eligible for crop insurance subsidies. For example, potato farmers received more than $70 million in premium subsidies in 2023. Onion farmers collected more than $20 million, according to USDA records.

The corn and barley grown by billionaires like Kroenke qualify for crop insurance subsidies – and are not subject to a means test. Corn farmers received almost $4 billion in crop insurance subsidies in 2023. Barley farmers collected more than $50 million.

Stan Kroenke’s Broken O Ranch, near Augusta, Mont. 

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While crop farmers have long been able to receive crop insurance subsidies, livestock operators recently began collecting subsidies to buy crop insurance through the Dairy Revenue Protection, Livestock Gross Margin and Livestock Risk Protection programs. Annual forage crops, including hay, can also receive crop insurance subsidies.

 A growing number of livestock insurance policies have been sold since 2003

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Livestock insurance subsidy costs soared between 2003-2023

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Difficulty getting data

Uncovering the full extent of farmland and ranchland owned by billionaires is challenging.

Billionaires buy farmlands through an ever-shifting constellation of shell companies. For example, a limited liability company known as Lakeland Sands bought hundreds of acres in Florida and Georgia in 2013 and 2014, only to sell many of these holdings in 2021.

Who owns Lakeland Sands? Bill Gates.

Some members of Congress, led Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), are trying to lift the veil of secrecy hiding crop insurance subsidy recipients from the public, including subsidies that may be collected by billionaires.

The lawmakers introduced a bill that would require the USDA to publicly disclose the names of producers and insurers who receive federal crop insurance subsidies and the amount received.

Blumenauer is also seeking to subject crop insurance subsidies to a means test so billionaires would be ineligible.

Ten years ago, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) asked 50 billionaires whether they were receiving crop insurance subsidies. A decade later, the only thing that has changed is there are many more billionaires.