Source: NATIONAL SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE COALITION, 8/23/16

The use of means tests in federal entitlement programs, using income levels to determine eligibility for funds, is a common –if not controversial– practice. For decades, federal farm commodity subsidy programs have stood out as one of very few federal entitlement programs that employed no means tests or income caps to determine eligibility. Over the course of the last three farm bills, however, that distinction has been erased. The 2014 Farm Bill (our current farm bill), for instance, limits eligibility to persons with less than $900,000 a year in Adjusted Gross Income (AGI); double that amount for married couples filing tax returns separately, in most cases.

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