We begin with a brief comparison of the size distribution of US
and EU-15 farms to provide the European audience a greater
context to the US issues. The EU data are from the Farm
Structures Survey and the US data are from USDA’s Agriculture
Resource Management Survey (ARMS). We next address the reasons
for the unexpected increase in the number of small farms in the
US and the possible role of government policies. We draw on ARMS
to provide the distribution of commodity and conservation
payments by farm size. Although limits on payments to large
farms have long been addressed by the periodic US Farm Acts,
payments continue to be concentrated on large farms largely
because of their historical ties to farm production. The most
recent 2008 Farm Act included more provisions to target program
participants based on the personal characteristics of the
operators and to limit payments to individuals likely to be
operating large farms.