Planes, plows and subsidies: Denver airport harvested farm cash by renting out land for crops

Denver airport reaped federal farm subsidies

DENVER — Denver International Airport reaped about $400,000 in federal agricultural subsidies between 1995 and 2003 by leasing up to 18,000 acres of its land to farmers.

About two-thirds of the money went to the farmers.

The city-owned airport acknowledged the subsidies this week after the Independence Institute, a conservative Colorado think tank, spotted the payments.

The airport stopped receiving the farm payments in 2004 but now gets federal subsidies for grasslands erosion control.

The airport on the plains east of Denver opened in 1995.

Information from: KCNC-TV, www.cbs4denver.com