Crop Insurance Saves Taxpayers Money
The same farmers who faced record flooding last year are facing severe drought this year, which underscores the need for effective risk management tools in agriculture. The Sept. 2 article “Highest cost of drought falls on taxpayers” misses the reasons why crop insurance has gained such broad public and political support. Farmers purchase crop insurance […]
NCIS Responds to Chicago Tribune Editorial
It is unfortunate that the Chicago Tribune would choose to criticize crop insurance, a new hybrid of private-public risk management that is saving taxpayers lots of money and shielding them from risk (“Farm Bill? Later. Political gridlock may save U.S. from bad farm legislation,” Editorial, Sept. 17). In the past, agriculture disasters like this year’s […]
Drought Update – September 25, 2012
The portion of the lower 48 states experiencing moderate to exceptional drought increased yet again, to 65%, according to the September 18 U.S. Drought Monitor. In 41%of those states, the drought conditions are considered “severe, extreme or exceptional.” In addition, 54%of the country was in moderate drought or worse. The majority of the country’s corn and soybean acres are affected, and while […]
CROP INSURANCE IN ACTION: Whitney Blodgett, Shoreham, Vermont
Whitney Blodgett has been farming in the family’s Vermont apple orchard, commercially known as “Sentinel Pine Orchard,” his whole life. Blodgett says that the family purchased the orchard in 1964, and have since grown, adding the abandoned dairy farm next door. Sentinel Pine Orchard, is comprised of 220 acres of apple trees, mostly planted in […]
