BY MALIA ZIMMERMAN – While Hawaii ranks low when compared to other states in terms of federal subsidies for farms, dozens of Hawaii farms and ranches have received funding from the federal government over the last 10 years.
According to a 2011 Farm Subsidy Database, Hawaii received $68.2 million in subsidies from 1995 to 2010, which puts Hawaii at 48th out of 50 states.
Included in this funding are $1.74 million in commodity subsidies, $12.8 million in crop insurance subsidies, $30.0 million in conservation subsidies and $23.7 million in disaster subsidies.
Topping the list of states receiving the most farm subsidies over the last 10 years are:
| 1 | Iowa | $15,478,025,171 | ||
| 2 | Texas | $14,886,914,934 | ||
| 3 | Illinois | $13,963,058,099 | ||
| 4 | Nebraska | $10,238,270,687 | ||
| 5 | Minnesota | $9,851,358,806 |
Most Hawaii farmers and ranchers are making it on their own without government assistance. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that 97 percent of farmers in Hawaii did not collect subsidy payments.
However 10 percent of the farmers who did in fact collect subsidies were larger beneficiaries – they took in 67 percent of all monies amounting to $37.3 million over 16 years.
Some of the top beneficiaries include:
A list of those farms can be seen here: