Our View: Farmers Deserve Better
Without any consultation with America’s farmers, or apparently even elected leaders from rural America, a handful of lawmakers fast-tracked a new budget proposal that would decimate crop insurance.
DetailsU.S. Farm Policy Helps Farmers Fight Bad Actors on the World Stage
The full-scale reality of what American farmers are up against when it comes to competing with foreign treasuries rather than foreign farmers was the topic of a hearing at the House Committee on Agriculture this week.
DetailsTexas Conservation Project Helps Farmers Manage Finite Water Resources
“2011 was a game changer. It altered the lives of all of us in production agriculture,” explained Rick Kellison, the project director of the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation (TAWC), during a farm tour near Lubbock, Texas where the Southwest Council of Agribusiness (SWCA) convened its annual meeting last week.
DetailsAg Outlook Underscores Importance of Capital, Strong Farm Policy
The next few years very well may be defining for the future outlook of agriculture. And the whole world has a lot riding on the outcome.
DetailsRep. Benishek: Farms are the Backbone of our Economy & Country
Protecting our farms is good economic policy and it is critical to the health and safety of our nation. As the proud representative of the First District of Michigan, I will do everything I can to ensure that my farmers have a voice in the decisions made in Washington.
DetailsU.S. Crop Insurance Gets International Spotlight
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.
Details#ICYMI: Crop Insurance Literally Saved My Mississippi Farm
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.
DetailsForeign Ag Support Programs Put American Farmers at a Competitive Disadvantage
American wheat farmers lose close to $1 billion in revenue each year because certain countries are violating trade rules under the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements, according to a new study.
DetailsAmerican Farm Families Expected to Lose Half their Farm Income this Year
USDA forecasts that when all is said and done, American farmers will have a combined farm income that is less than half of what it was just two years ago. This alone is staggering. But it may well mark just the beginning of a depressed farm economy the effects of which may very well adversely impact the entire sector and cascade across other sectors of our economy.
DetailsOur View: Heritage Action is Out of Step
It’s bizarre that groups claiming to carry President Reagan’s mantel, such as Heritage Action, have targeted U.S. farm policy for elimination.
DetailsLibertarian Think Tank Continues Clueless Farm Policy Critique
“Heritage Action and groups like it had better get serious because they are losing credibility fast and they are damaging the conservative cause.”
Details#ICYMI: Cuts to the Farm Safety Net Jeopardize a National Asset
If ever we lose the hard-working independent family farms that take care of the nation’s landscape while producing a diverse set of crops more reliably and efficiently than any farm sector in history, then, and only then will we truly understand the value they provide.
DetailsAfter Reforms, EU Sugar Farmers to Get $665 Million a Year in Direct Payments
Nearly a decade ago, the World Trade Organization found the European Union guilty of violating trade rules. Since that ruling, the EU has implemented radical changes to its sugar policy. But, will those changes help further free trade and lead to a subsidy-free system as some in the EU are claiming?
Details#ICYMI: Political Attacks Endanger Farmers’ No. 1 Risk-Management Tool
Whether you’re a peach grower in South Carolina like me or a corn farmer in Iowa or a cherry grower in Michigan or a cotton farmer in Texas, crop insurance is designed to cover you when disasters strike. And the more farmers buying policies, the better we all are in the long run because that spreads the risk.
DetailsCrop Insurance Critic Plans Biased Research Project
“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.”
DetailsOur View: Appropriators Shouldn’t Pry Open 2014 Farm Bill
Lawmakers should oppose any effort to undermine the farm safety net for any crop during the appropriations process. Congress has already held this debate, and rural Americans have made long-term business decisions based on the bill approved in 2014. To introduce uncertainty into the marketplace so soon thereafter would simply be irresponsible.
Details#ICYMI: Fight Foreign Subsidies, Don’t Unilaterally Disarm
Unilateral disarmament will do nothing to help U.S. consumers or a U.S. economy that depends on a thriving agricultural sector. It will only reward China and other bad actors, while leaving hardworking American farmers powerless the next time storm clouds gather.
DetailsOur View: A Timely Reminder To Stick Together
We cannot afford any animosity within our own ranks. It is fodder for our foes. It is an excuse for policymakers to cut up what remains of the farm safety net. It is a deterrent for recruiting the next generation of leaders on Capitol Hill and beyond.
DetailsFarm Policy Makes Good Economic Sense
Despite what farm policy critics would have you believe, farm policy is anything but a handout for farmers. In fact, newly released data from the National Crop Insurance Services (NCIS) demonstrates that farmers are taking care of their own and in the process reducing the cost to the federal government.
DetailsRep. Peterson: Standing Up for 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.
Details#ICYMI: Crop Insurance helps farmers survive unpredictable weather
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.
DetailsUn-Thai-ing The Global Sugar Subsidy Mess
And a new study commissioned by U.S. sugar producers sheds light on the intricate web of Thai subsidies.
DetailsOur View: Fight Foreign Subsidies, Don’t Unilaterally Disarm
Farmers face a lot of risks the rest of us don’t. And given the capital requirements of farming today, each of these risks has big financial consequences.
DetailsFPF Fact Check: WSJ Editorial Doesn’t Pass the Commonsense Test
The headline in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial read: “Paying for ethanol at the pump and on the plate.” It caught our eye for the fact that it doesn’t even pass the commonsense test. Gas prices are way down and projected to stay that way. So, too, are corn prices.
Details#ICYMI: No Crop Insurance Would Mean No Food
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.
DetailsOur View: Cultivating the Next Generation of Farmers
We have a strong foundation for cultivating the next generation of farmers in the 2014 Farm Bill, but the law needs to be fully implemented for any of this to matter. Although it is on the books for five years, it is likely to be under attack during the annual appropriations process.
Details#ICYMI: Why America’s Cotton Producers Need Access to Affordable Crop Insurance
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.
DetailsFarmers Take to the Opinion Pages To Explain Why They Need Crop Insurance
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.
Details#ICYMI: Evolution of farm policy benefits farmers, taxpayers
Some stereotypes about U.S. farm policy just won’t die. For example, the belief that farmers get paid for not growing; or that benefits just go to big agribusinesses; or that farm spending is out of control. Such criticisms make splashy headlines but are no longer relevant thanks to the significant evolution of farm policy over the past 20 years
DetailsCapitol Hill Leaders Dismiss EWG
“EWG has no credibility.” Farm Policy Facts has been saying this for years about the Environmental Working Group (EWG), and it looks like quite a few Capitol Hill leaders agree. The direct quote came from House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), who spoke last week to The Hagstrom Report. Peterson was not alone in giving EWG a congressional smack down.
Details#ICYMI: Mr. Xi, and others, tear down these walls
Maintaining a modest response to the cheaters by preserving U.S. farm policy is not only the right thing to do, it is also an essential means of maintaining support for trade and the only leverage the United States has in getting our trading partners to one day tear down the walls they have been so busy building.
DetailsFrom the Field: Affordability & Availability of Crop Insurance is Critical For Farmers
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.
DetailsOur View: Despite Reforms, Farmers Face Same Old Depressing Attacks
Sometimes it seems like farm policy critics are stuck in the past, using the same old set of talking points for every congressional debate instead of taking the time to update them to reflect the real reforms that are underway.
DetailsA Growing Trend: U.S. Ag Exports Face Significant Trade Barriers
A recent study released from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) sheds light on significant trade barriers American goods and services face in some of the largest export markets like China, Canada, the European Union (EU), and others.
Details#ICYMI: Crop Insurance a Key for Producers
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.
Details#ICYMI: It’s Up to Us to Explain the Importance 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.
DetailsSen. Fischer: Protecting Our Resources
Farm Policy Facts is pleased to publish a guest editorial from U.S. Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska that addresses the “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule.
Details#ICYMI: Give Crop Insurance a Chance to Work
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.
DetailsOur View: America’s Farmers Have Answered the Call for Budget Cuts
In times like these, Washington should be applauding the agricultural community for the contributions it has already made, not working to make things even harder by jeopardizing the one thing farmers should be able to count on: the just-passed farm safety net.
DetailsFarmer Cooperatives: Putting a Spotlight on a True American Success Story
By Charles F. Conner Some of America’s best loved brands—Land O’Lakes butter, Blue Diamond almonds, Welch’s grape juice, Riceland, and Sunkist oranges, to name a few—come from cooperatives that are wholly owned by the men and women who actually grow the crops. The old adage that “necessity is the mother of invention” could reasonably describe…
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