US supported agriculture to tune of almost 50% in 2020 (Farmers Journal)

Farmers Journal published an article stating that subsidies to US farmers ballooned in 2019 and 2020, driven by ad hoc payments aimed at offsetting the impacts of former president Trump’s trade war and COVID-19. Despite the effects of both, farm income in 2020 was at the highest level since 2013. Weaning US farmers off heightened levels of direct payments will be challenging. Senior Research Fellow Joseph Glauber suggests the surge in supplementary funding into the sector came at a time when farm solvency measures and bankruptcies were well below levels experience in the mid-1980s. Glauber’s analysis of spending levels in US Ag concludes that US trade-distorting support for 2019 and 2020 has likely exceeded the current WTO’s bound level of domestic support (something the US has agreed to).