In America, approximately 220,000 farming and ranching families raise 80 percent of the crops and livestock that feed and clothe our nation. All 330 million of us. “That is a very big task for a very small group of people,” crop insurance agent Joanie Grimes recently told Farm Policy Facts on our Groundwork podcast It’s a task that comes…
An August storm in Iowa flattened millions of acres of corn with more than 100 mile-per-hour winds, wildfires in the West continue to do untold damage to fruit and vegetable crops, and hurricane season in the Atlantic has already generated a historic number of storms. Farmers are sure to face even more challenges as extreme…
Groundwork caught up with Ruth Gerdes, President of Auburn Agency Crop Insurance, in late June while she was on Capitol Hill to testify before the House Agriculture Committee about what she calls the “the jewel in the crown of U.S. farm policy.”
America’s largest farms are far less risky than smaller operations and typically have fewer crop insurance claims, according to a new working paper from top agricultural economists.
For Musick, crop insurance is one of the most important parts of the Farm Bill and it’s one that he advocates for every time he gets a chance.
In that single moment, I realized that there are no guarantees and certainly not with farming. We operate at the will of Mother Nature. As a result, we have to do our part to minimize the risk as best as we can, so we can get back on our feet when a disaster strikes.
A group of 59 wildlife, environmental, agricultural and farm credit advocates sent letters to Congress this week asking officials to back crop insurance during budget debates.
“As we begin negotiations around a new Farm Bill, I for one will be an outspoken advocate for crop insurance. It is not just an ‘insurance policy’ for farmers, but also an ‘insurance policy’ against disruption and financial instability in the food production sector.”
What I have learned during this time is this: farming is an enormous game of risk management. It’s not if something bad is going to happen, it’s when.
As farmers, we have no control over weather. We have no control over markets. We have no control over our foreign competitors. We cannot just turn our operations on or off. We have to take care of the land 365 days a year. We need a safety net when commodity prices fall. We need affordable and reliable crop insurance to protect our yearly investments.
Farm Policy Facts is pleased to publish a guest editorial from Rep. Jim Costa on the importance of maintaining a strong safety net for farmers.
“As Congress and the White House wrestle with their respective budgets in the coming weeks, I hope good sense will prevail and they’ll leave crop insurance and farm policy alone.”
A new survey demonstrates a strong level of support for crop insurance among farmers growing a diverse set of crops across the country, and opposition to any legislative proposals that weaken this important risk management tool.
It is a fact that strong farm policy and support for crop insurance goes beyond the farmer, not only benefitting rural America but consumers as well.
“It ain’t over till it’s over,” said the great Yogi Berra. He was referring to the New York Mets’ season in 1973, but the sentiment could easily describe the fight to stave off cuts to federal crop insurance this year.
As Congress prepares to vote on a budget agreement that includes cuts to a key component of the farm safety net, Larry Combest, the former chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture and the Select Committee on Intelligence, makes clear to lawmakers what is at stake if it comes to pass.
The importance of crop insurance to meet the needs of a growing world population took center stage this week in Kansas City as agricultural leaders from more than 30 countries gathered for the International Association of Agricultural Production Insurers (AIAG) to learn more about the American system.
As a fourth generation Mississippi farmer, I grew up knowing that I worked in a field full of risks. When the weather cooperates, prices dive. When prices are great, foreign markets collapse, sending prices into a sudden nosedive. It’s always something. However, it wasn’t until I actually set out on my own in farming in 2011 that I fully understood just how financially exposed farmers are when they put a crop in the ground.
“The group claims it wants to measure farmers’ attitudes on crop insurance, but instead of asking unprejudiced questions, it simply requests farmers to back its inaccurate representation of crop insurance.”
Crop insurance is the cornerstone of the farm bill’s safety net and our job now is to make sure we don’t do anything to mess it up.
This recent headline says it all. The diversity of American agricultural production coupled with the varied growing conditions across the country and the swings in weather explains why farmers need a safety net. More importantly, it describes why crop insurance is the centerpiece of the farm safety net.
A financially healthy rural economy requires a financially healthy farm production sector. And that sector relies on a safety net when catastrophic events happen. It is a modest investment considering the return, which is a stable and affordable national food and fiber supply.
Crop insurance products were improved in the recent farm bill because Congress recognized that these products are a necessity for farmers regardless of size. To me, a federally-supported crop insurance policy is defensible because a portion of the product’s cost is borne by the farmer.
In the midst of the spring planting season, a couple of farmers took to the opinion pages over the weekend to explain the importance of their primary risk management tool: crop insurance.
There’s a reason the 2014 Farm Bill made crop insurance the centerpiece of U.S. farm policy. It is an effective risk management tool for not only farmers, but also taxpayers.
My husband and I have been farming in Southeastern Colorado for more than 40 years, and during that time the biggest policy change through the years has been the affordability and availability of crop insurance.
We can’t assume policymakers understand the anxiety we feel when we’re days away from harvesting a good crop and it’s destroyed in a matter of minutes by something beyond our control.
Keith Mussman, a farmer and president of the Kankakee County Farm Bureau, took to the editorial pages of The Daily Journal a few days ago to express what is on the minds of farmers all across the country: give crop insurance and the 2014 Farm Bill a chance to work.
Last week, newspapers in two different and diverse regions of the country featured editorials on the importance of crop insurance, which highlights how it has become the risk management of choice for farmers nationwide. Steve Baccus, a family farmer from Kansas and the former president of the Kansas Farm Bureau, wrote in the Wichita Eagle that…
On the heels of the president’s budget release that proposed harmful cuts to crop insurance, a diverse group of farming organizations, agricultural businesses, banks, and equipment manufacturers sent a letter to Capitol Hill urging legislators to reject the president’s plan and to protect crop insurance in upcoming congressional budget proposals.
Matthew King, a farmer from central Ohio, recently took to the editorial pages of the Columbus Dispatch to defend America’s current farm policy. And he gave some real-world perspective on the skin-in-the-game farmers have in today’s system. “In 2013, our farming operation’s crop-insurance premium totaled more than my wife’s annual salary as a local…
Farm Policy Facts has long stressed the importance of crop insurance to our farm safety net. We are pleased to see these same views being echoed in mainstream media, especially in light of the number of column inches given to our critics. The following column, by farmer Matthew King, appeared recently in the Columbus…
The popularity of crop insurance was on full display during debate of the 2014 Farm Bill, and the phrase “do no harm to crop insurance” was uttered over and over again by farm leaders and policymakers alike when describing their policy goals. Lawmakers embraced the policy because, with crop insurance, farmers have skin in the…
The passage of the 2014 Farm Bill marked a pivotal point in U.S farm policy, whereby the federal government ended direct payments in favor of crop insurance that farmers purchase to meet their unique needs. Crop insurance has been around since the 1930s and for most of that time was widely underused and unknown.…
Editor’s Note: The following guest op-ed by Max Claybaker, a farmer and a crop insurance insurance agent from Blackwell, Oklahoma, appeared in The Oklahoman on Sunday, June 1. In some parts of Oklahoma, it seems like wheat farmers just can’t catch a break. A late spring freeze, combined with excessively dry or extreme drought conditions…
When the 2014 Farm Bill was passed, Farm Policy Facts applauded lawmakers for preserving this cornerstone of the farm safety net—crop insurance. The prioritization of crop insurance in the 2014 Farm Bill stands as a clear recognition that these tailored policies are playing the most integral role in farmers’ risk management portfolio, even as…
Just days after the 2014 Farm Bill was signed into law, crop insurers gathered for their annual meeting to assess where the industry had come and where it is going. One of the key architects of the Farm Bill, Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, told the crowd that they began writing the Farm Bill three…
by Cristina Pastor Approximately 86 percent of planted cropland in the U.S. is protected by crop insurance. The end result? Even when farmers were hit with a string of natural disasters, there wasn’t a single call to Congress for expensive disaster aid. While the U.S. is acknowledged as the leader in the crop insurance industry,…
Two Dear Colleagues currently circulating highlight the importance of voting NO on the Kind amendment that aims to destroy crop insurance: Oppose Kind Amendment #149 That Aims to Destroy Federal Crop Insurance FROM: The Honorable Frank D. Lucas, Chairman, House Agriculture Committee The Honorable Collin Peterson, Ranking Member, House Agriculture Committee Dear Colleague: I write…