A Decade of Disaster: How Emergency Programs Took Over Farm Subsidies
In less than a decade, emergency and disaster programs went from a supplemental safety net to the dominant form of federal agricultural spending — accounting for $64.67B of the total.
💡 Key Insight
Average annual spending jumped from $10.79B (2017–2018) to $15.33B (2019–2025) — a 1.4× increase. The peak year was 2020 at $38.73B.
The Before and After
In 2017, total USDA farm subsidy spending stood at $6.35B. By 2020, it had exploded to $38.73B — a 6.1× increase in just three years. The culprit? A cascade of crises: trade wars in 2018–2019, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and ongoing climate disasters that triggered billions in emergency relief.
Emergency Spending by the Numbers
Our analysis identified 39 emergency and disaster programs that collectively paid out $64.67B — that's 44% of all farm subsidies in the dataset. The largest include:
| Program | Amount |
|---|---|
| CFAP Round 2 | $14.23B |
| Emergency Commodity Assistance Program | $9.36B |
| Emergency Relief Program | $6.56B |
| CFAP CARES Act | $5.60B |
| Supp Disaster Relief (Non-Specialty Crops) | $5.40B |
| CFAP CCC Payments (A) | $5.15B |
| CFAP3 Top-Up Payments | $4.35B |
| Whip Plus 3 Assistance | $2.49B |
| Emerg Assist Livestock Bees Fish (Elap) | $1.81B |
| Emrgncy Relief Program Trk 1-Nonspclty Crps | $1.38B |
The New Normal?
The shift to emergency spending raises fundamental questions about U.S. farm policy. Traditional programs like CRP and Price Loss Coverage were designed for predictable support. But when emergencies become the norm — trade wars, pandemics, climate disasters — the "emergency" label starts to feel permanent.
Even in the more recent years of 2023–2024, spending remains elevated well above the 2017 baseline, suggesting the era of emergency-dominated farm spending is far from over.
Explore our disaster spending analysis for program-level details, or see spending trends over time.