WASHINGTON - The Dakotas have received more than $10 billion in farm subsidies over the last decade, according to analysis from The Environmental Working Group.

The Washington-based advocacy organization that tracks data from the Department of Agriculture has rated North Dakota Rep. Earl Pomeroy's at-large congressional district (the entire state), as the top recipient of federal farm subsidies over the last decade, compared with other congressional districts.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth's district, which encompasses all of South Dakota, is fourth.

North Dakota farmers and ranchers received $464 million in subsidies in 2004, according to the advocacy group. The state has received a total of $6.2 billion in subsidies over the last 10 years, $4.3 billion of which is commodity subsidies. The rest of the money was conservation programs and disaster payments.

Just doing some quick math, $6.2 billion works out to be about $620 million/year. In 2002, according to USDA ag statistics, there were 30,619 farms in North Dakota in 2002. Even rounding that number up to 31,000 the calculation works out to be $20,000 tax dollars for each and every farm in the state of North Dakota.

Obviously, some farms get more and some get less, and some goes to administration costs and such, but the point is clear: If agriculture is supposed to be a business, why on earth can't it be run so that every farm doesn't need a $20,000 infusion from the government every year?

Were any other business run like that it'd be closed up within a year or so, yet with farming it's business as usual.