ON "60 MINUTES": FARM TRADE RELIEF PROGRAM GIVES LARGE FARMS THE LION'S SHARE OF GOVERNMENT PAYMENTS

Some farmers affected by the pandemic shutdown were already hurting. They lost their export market to China in retaliation for trade war tariffs and then watched most of the U.S. trade payments go to the largest farms. Lesley Stahl reports from America's heartland where the small farmer is increasingly threatened with extinction. Her story will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES, Sunday, May 3 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Big farms are getting most of the $28 billion bailout money, in some cases by exploiting rules the administration adopted from past congressional farm bills. The Agriculture Department's trade relief program was conducted without Congress.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue defended the program and in particular its large payments to big farms. "The fact is, Lesley, most of our production in America is done by large farmers. That's just the way it happens," he says. "These... are awards based on the production."

But the program has its critics.

"These payments aren't just going to farmers who are out there climbing up on a tractor every morning. These payments are going to people who are living in the middle of New York City because they happen to have an ownership interest in the farm," says Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, which found hundreds of urban dwellers, including an architect, a composer and a banker who receive payments under the program. That's not America's idea of a farmer who deserves a government payment, according to Cook.

This irks farmer Doug Sombke, who runs a medium-sized family farm in South Dakota. "I mean, my sons are the ones out here working. They're the ones that should get the money," he tells Stahl. "On our farm, we've lost - in the last three years, roughly $125,000 to $200,000 a year." Sombke and Bob Kuylen oversee the Farmers Union in North and South Dakota, with more than 50,000 members.

Kuylen says his farm has lost about $70,000 each of the past few years. The downturn in small farm communities is taking a toll on mental health, they say. The men noted an increase in suicides in the area among farmers. "I know personally families that are suffering through [suicide]," Kuylen tells Stahl. "The stresses out there now... four or five generations of their family, and they're the ones that lost the farm? What do you think that's going to do to their mind?

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