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As the 119th Congress begins, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) reauthorization is again on the agenda after numerous extensions. The farm safety net, which includes commodity support programs and federal crop insurance, is a fundamental component of any farm bill. 

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) has long supported a federal safety net to help farmers manage risk and withstand financial volatility. Still, current US Department of Agriculture (USDA) commodity programs – some of the most expensive parts of the farm bill – are simply inaccessible for the vast majority of American farms. These programs primarily benefit a limited number of commodity producers, leaving behind many farmers, including small, beginning, and specialty crop farmers. Consequently, simply increasing investments in these programs is not a panacea.  

Improving the farm safety net to promote both long-term resilience against worsening risks and basic fairness, through a more equitable allocation of resources, is critical for the country’s agricultural future. This post explores the scope and limitations of two farm safety net programs – the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs – to inform how Congress can build a fair and accessible safety net in the next farm bill.

ARC and PLC are the largest commodity support programs for farmers, designed to help protect against unpredictable losses in income or drops in prices for covered crops. ARC provides payments when a farmer’s revenue for a specific crop falls below historical average revenue, either individual farm revenue (ARC-Individual) or county average revenue (ARC-County). PLC triggers payments if the market price for a crop drops below a reference price that is established in statute, per eligible crop. 

The stated intention of both programs is to stabilize farm income and support agricultural producers facing the financial risks of volatile markets. Eligible farmers can choose between the two programs annually, based on forecasts of commodity prices and the risks they expect to face. 

ARC and PLC are authorized in the federal farm bill and are together projected to cost at least $48 billion over 10 years. In agriculture production spending, the cost of these programs is surpassed only by federal crop insurance. 

Unfortunately, despite the costly price tag, ARC and PLC leave behind most American farmers and ranchers due to their narrow focus on a handful of commodities.

In 2023, there were 239.7 million acres enrolled in ARC and PLC, representing only 27 percent of all US farmland. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, 752,072 farms grow commodities that are covered by ARC and PLC, meaning that only 40 percent of all US farms grow commodities that are eligible for ARC and PLC. 

These large subsidy programs are only available to farms that produce a limited number of commodity crops: corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, barley, canola, chickpeas (large and small), dry peas, grain sorghum, lentils, mustard seed, oats, rapeseed, rice (both long-grain and medium/short-grain), safflower, sesame seed, and sunflower seed. 

Furthermore, to enroll in ARC or PLC, a farm must have “base acres” enrolled with USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), which administers the programs, as one of these covered commodities. Having base acres in a commodity does not mean that those acres are planted to that commodity. Instead, the number of base acres that a farm has of any commodity is tied to what was grown on that land in 1996, with only a handful of opportunities to make voluntary updates since then.

This model was partially designed to prevent farmers from “planting the program,” or making annual planting decisions based solely on projected commodity prices; through much of the twentieth century, excess supply driven by such market dynamics often contributed to overproduction that depressed commodity prices. However, the reliance on base acres means that many young farmers, beginning farmers, and other underserved producers without historical crop production are excluded from ARC and PLC even if they grow eligible commodities. 

Just eight states have a majority of farmland acres eligible to enroll in ARC and PLC. The bottom 30 states have less than 30 percent of their farmland acreage eligible as base acres to enroll in ARC and PLC. The map below shows the percentage of farmland acres in each state that are eligible ARC and PLC base acres.

Of the 239.7 million acres enrolled in ARC and PLC in 2023, 85.5 percent were from just three commodities: corn (91 million acres), wheat (61 million acres), and soybeans (52 million acres). Of the $469 million spent on ARC in 2023, 75% percent went to those same three commodities: corn ($99.3 million), wheat ($190.3 million), and soybeans ($60 million). This includes both ARC-county and ARC-individual payments. Virtually no PLC payments were made in 2023 because market year average prices were higher than their reference prices. 

To understand the full impact of ARC and PLC it is important to evaluate them concurrently, as farmers can and do shift from one program to another each season based on projected prices and market conditions. While PLC payments have been near zero for the most recent years due to high commodity prices, even in years of record-high farm profits and high commodity prices, ARC has continued to distribute substantial payments.

In 2022, American farms had record high profits of $187.9 billion and market year average prices for the largest covered commodities were high, yet ARC still made $274 million in direct payments and 64% went to the same three commodities: corn ($65 million), soy ($37 million), and wheat ($72 million) despite high commodity prices for those crops. 

Despite strong commodity prices and record profits, ARC paid $274 million in 2022 and paid an additional 58% more ($469 million) in 2023 as farmers responded to strong commodity prices by transitioning from PLC to ARC enrollment. This highlights how ARC payments are tied to revenue benchmarks rather than overall farm profitability, raising questions about the program's alignment with actual financial needs.

Nearly half of all ARC and PLC payments go to farmers in just five states. From 2019-2023, five states accounted for 40.35% of all ARC and PLC payments: Texas ($1,181 million), Kansas ($888 million), North Dakota ($710 million), Georgia ($561 million), and Arkansas ($559 million). 

The interactive map below shows the total ARC and PLC payments to farmers in each state from 2019 to 2023. Click on a state to see the total amount, the total PLC payments, the total ARC-Individual payments, and the total ARC-County payments.

This stark geographic concentration of payments reflects the commodity focus of those states, base acres in each state, and differences in yield and benchmark revenues. States that receive high payment totals generally have more farmers specializing in covered commodities, especially corn, soy, and wheat. Those states also have larger base acreage that is eligible to be enrolled in ARC and PLC and have higher average yield and revenue benchmarks that result in larger payments when prices or revenues dip below historical averages. 

Farmers in most states, even those with very large agricultural economies such as Iowa and California, receive only modest support. Instead, ARC and PLC payments are concentrated in just a few areas with the most acres planted to cover commodities.  

To accommodate for a permanent farm safety that does not meet the needs of most farmers and ranchers, Congress has been forced to routinely authorize ad-hoc disaster assistance to offset worsening losses since 2017. In that time, Congress has spent just under $100 billion – up from $67 billion per the latest disaster and economic relief assistance package recently authorized in the American Relief Act of 2025. This infusion of cash is contributing to the latest USDA projection showing that farm income is expected to rise in 2025. 

Since 2022, more than half of all government payments to American farms have come from non-pandemic disaster relief. This trend further highlights how much of the farm safety net relies on costly ad-hoc measures. 

Despite their large price tag, ARC and PLC leave the majority of American farms and farmland vulnerable. For the first time since before the Civil War, the number of farms in the United States fell below two million in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, a seven percent loss of all US farms in just five years. Clearly, the current approach of simply throwing money at the problem, or into ARC and PLC as outdated bandages, is not working. 

It is necessary to close loopholes to ensure that larger operations and absent landowners or investors do not disproportionately benefit from these disaster assistance and commodity programs to the exclusion of farmers actively involved in the labor and management of their farms, including the small farmers growing fruits and vegetables who are most likely to be left behind. A resilient farm safety net should support all farmers, not just those of a certain size or growing a narrow set of commodities. 

Ultimately, the proactive solution is to strengthen programs that can serve all farmers, like federal crop insurance, and to invest in wider adoption of on-farm risk management, including soil health practices and market diversification, to mitigate losses before they happen. 

The post The Farm Safety Net: A Closer Look at ARC and PLC appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.