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By Jasmine Laws
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Tens of thousands of Americans in the country's largest metropolitan areas are receiving federal farm subsidies, despite not living or working on a farm, a new analysis has revealed.
An analysis by the research and advocacy organization Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that over 92,000 people living in urban areas received more than $2.6 billion in federal farm subsidies between 2020 and 2025.
While this issue predates Donald Trump's second term as president, the EWG noted that his One Big Beautiful Bill Act enlarged preexisting loopholes, making it even easier for those not living or working on farms to claim the financial benefits. The bill also increased payment limits, allowing those not working or living on farms to get even more money from the government.
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Supporters of the changes have argued that the expanded eligibility reflects the way many modern family farms are legally organized. They say that farms frequently operate as S corporations, limited liability companies (LLCs) or other business entities for tax, liability and succession-planning reasons, and that allowing all qualifying members of those operations to receive support helps ensure federal farm programs keep pace with contemporary agricultural business structures rather than favoring only traditionally organized farms.
The EWG reported that the number of subsidy recipients in urban areas increased by more than 13,000 in 2025 compared to previous analysis.
The Trump administration has expanded and intensified efforts to reduce waste, fraud and improper payments across federal programs.
Farmers have been increasingly struggling under Trump's second term as president, with bankruptcies reaching a six-year high earlier this year. Ongoing challenges such as lower commodity prices, rising input costs, weather-related losses and elevated borrowing costs continue to impact farmers.
White House official Anna Kelly told Newsweek: "Farmers suffered for years under Joe Biden, who increased the United States’ trade deficit to over $1.2 trillion, raised input costs, and pushed woke DEI agricultural policies.
"In contrast, President Trump is helping our agriculture industry by negotiating new trade deals, lowering input costs, bolstering the farm safety net, doubling the death tax exemption, ending taxes on rural property loan interest, creating rural opportunity zones, and more," she added.
Metro Areas Receiving the Most in Farm Subsidies
EWG's analysis of the 200 largest U.S. metropolitan areas found that the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington region had the largest number of urban subsidy recipients between 2020 and 2025, with 7,158 people receiving over $107 million.
Chicago ranked second with 4,276 recipients collecting $36 million between 2020 and 2025, followed by Kansas City with 3,474 recipients receiving $31 million.
Other major metropolitan areas with significant numbers of recipients included Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Houston.
When measured by the total value of payments rather than the number of recipients, those living in Amarillo, Texas, received a significant amount in subsidies—more than $211 million.
Meanwhile, those in urban areas of California also collected notable benefits. Americans in Fresno received roughly $198 million in farm subsidies, while those in Visalia received more than $209 million.
Why Are Americans in Urban Areas Getting Farm Subsidies?
Federal farm programs generally require recipients to be "actively engaged in farming"; however, as the data suggests, it seems to be rather easy to qualify as someone in that category, despite never living or working on a farm.
According to a Congressional Research Service report, individuals can qualify for payments if they make contributions of capital, land, labor or management to a farming operation and share in its profits and risks.
This enables those with management roles or within an ownership structure to claim financial support dedicated to farmers.
Special exemptions also exist for spouses, while partnerships and joint ventures can enable farms to qualify for larger overall payments by adding additional eligible members, each of whom may receive a separate payment limit.
The Government Accountability Office report in 2018 found that around one-quarter of farm subsidy recipients do not contribute any personal labor to farms, while another report issued last month found that a tariff relief program from Trump’s first term had an improper payment rate of 19.3 percent.
Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act also expanded eligibility for price support programs further, so that every member of a farm organized as a joint venture, S corporation or limited liability corporation could collect funds, and increased annual payment limits from $125,000 to $155,000 per person.
The impact of this is that more money will likely go to larger, more successful farms, while smaller farms that are struggling may not reap the same level of benefit.
The EWG has warned that, without changes to the eligibility requirements for these subsidies, billions of dollars worth of subsidies, designed to help struggling farmers, will continue to go to city dwellers who have nothing to do with farming.
What Did The OBBBA Do For Farmers?
Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act expanded federal support and tax benefits for American farmers. The legislation increased reference prices for major crops by 10 percent to 20 percent and made an additional 30 million acres eligible for certain farm program payments.
It also increased the federal government's share of crop insurance premiums and extended eligibility for certain beginning-farmer assistance programs to up to 10 years.
The law also included several tax provisions affecting farmers and ranchers, including permanent full expensing for qualifying equipment purchases, a permanent 20 percent deduction for many pass-through businesses, and a higher estate tax exemption that could reduce estate tax liability when farms are transferred between generations.
Update 07/13/26, 12:00 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Anna Kelly.
Update 07/14/26, 7:28 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Daniel Orton, James Debens and Gray R. Thomas.
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