According to a report in the Washington Times, three quarters of U.S. farm subsidies go to large corporate farms, with only 40 per cent of growers receiving anything at all from the program.

According to the Times 413 municipal governments, 44 universities and 14 prison systems managed to use the system to get subsidies under the program, while tens of thousands of small farmers and ranchers had their applications denied. Ken Cook is president of the Enviromental Working Group and their data was used by the Times to conduct the study. "What this program is about is not helping working farmers. It ends up having taxpayers give money to people who own the right land," Mr. Cook said. "They supported the marching band at the University of Illinois with farm-support money," he said. "We are all in favor of marching bands at Environmental Working Group. But there should be other ways to pay for it than with money for the farm-support program."

According to the Times large corporate farms, including Fortune 500 companies receive the majority of farm subsidy money, with many local governments and institutions finding clever ways to milk the system for cash for various programs, while small farmers are driven out of business by low commodity prices (having also been turned down under the aid program, leading to more concentration of land ownership). According to the Times study, "The University of Arizona, Iowa State University at Ames and Texas Tech University all got $1.2 million over the six-year period. The Texas Tech Medical Foundation in Lubbock found a way to squeeze $5,454 from the program. The Texas School for the Blind in Austin received $14,309. Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington got $727,135. Indiana Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school in Cicero, got $109,334. The Iowa Academy of Science in Mason City received $84,483. City governments in farm states have eagerly climbed on the wagon with local producers. The city of Stuttgart, Ark., got $335,503. Stuttgart is the home of 715 subsidy recipients who collectively raked in $178,025,550 in the past six years. Arkansas' largest recipient, Riceland Foods Inc. of Stuttgart, got $50.8 million in crop subsidies and $220.8 million in federal commodity certificate subsidies in 2000 and 2001. Fifty-eight city governments in Kansas collectively got $431,769; 31 cities in Illinois, $313,656; 31 Missouri cities, $508,860; 26 Iowa cities, $344,846; 17 Oklahoma cities and towns, $491,068. In the West, where billions of federal dollars previously paid for irrigation projects that turned desert into farmland, California's Reclamation District No. 108 in Grimes found a way to collect $322,116 in crop subsidies. Nebraska's Public Power District in Kearney collected $149,850, while North Dakota's State Water Commission in Bismarck got $11,226. Even airports and historical societies are at the trough: Walla Walla Regional Airport in Washington state got $67,222; Idaho County Airport in Grangeville, Idaho, $6,612; and Iowa City Airport, Iowa, $805. The Nebraska State Historical Society got $31,919; the Kansas State Historical Society, $6,453; the State Historical Society of Iowa, $3,392; and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, $1,010. State and local agencies in the District, Hawaii, New Jersey and Rhode Island got no farm-subsidy money. In Nevada, just the University of Nevada at Reno got $23,110. In New York, just the State University of New York at Morrisville collected $15,16 2."