Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Farm subsidies, EXPOSED!

Okay, I'll stop doing that.
I was at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online searchable database last night and absorbed some 1800's newspaper style/pacing. We'll switch to Readers Digest (modern).

"What do Ken Lay, Ted Turner, Sam Donaldson and David Rockefeller all have in common?"

"From 1995 to 2005, Lay, the now-deceased Enron CEO, got $23,326 for conservation land in Missouri; business mogul Turner raked in $590,823 for farms in Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana and Florida; Donaldson supplemented his earnings as a broadcast journalist with $88,308 for a livestock ranch in New Mexico; and Rockefeller, a financier and philanthropist, got $553,782 for two farms in New York."

The article mentions the 90210 zip code but that was so last century. I track the farmers in 10022 (66 of 'em, yup); 06831 (39) and 60045 (187).

All this was really just an excuse to share a couple of my favorite bookmarks:


The Brooklyn Public Library's Daily Eagle, Online database.
The Environmental Working Group's "Farm Subsidy Database"

Both of them do good work if you're looking for a place to send a few bucks.

The RD story is here. (They've got a daytime job, they're doin' alright) Wallace Foundation 2005 grants: $56,665,282.