Farm Policy is Essential to Maintaining Ag Production in the U.S.
If there is one place that, in recent years, overwhelmingly demonstrates the need and importance of U.S. farm policy, it is California. For the past four years, this top agricultural producing state has experienced record drought conditions and for farmers like my husband and me, it has taken a toll on our operation. We have […]
Crop Insurance is Critical for Beginning Farmers
Agriculture has been my passion since an early age growing up on the family farm. I have continued the tradition with a farm of my own.Additionally, I have worked as an agricultural banker for nearly four decades. I started out working in the Farm Credit System, but eventually moved over to the private sector because […]
Crop Insurance is Money Well Spent by Farmers
Many folks might not realize this, but the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill was a turning point in American history, from an agricultural perspective. Largely gone are the days of government support programs like direct payments. In their place, and at the center stage of farm risk management tools, is crop insurance. I had […]
Crop Insurance Can Help Keep Multi-Generational Farms Within the Family
My farm has been in my family since the mid-1800s. I have seen firsthand how farming has changed over the decades. It is certainly more expensive to farm than when my parents and grandparents and great-great grandparents farmed the land, but one thing hasn’t changed in more than 150 years: farming is an unpredictable business. […]
Keep Crop Insurance Out of the Crosshairs
The passage of the 2014 Farm Bill was the beginning of a new chapter in U.S. farm policy, putting to rest most of the old farm support programs and replacing them with a reformed farm safety net and its centerpiece: Crop insurance. Unlike farm programs of the past, only farmers who purchase crop insurance enjoy […]
Insurance on crops boosts farms of all sizes
It is no secret that farm demographics demonstrate an alarming trend in American agriculture. The average age of the American farmer is rising while the number of beginning farmers is decreasing. These beginning farmers are typically younger than their more established counterparts with less access to credit and capital. I see this reality every day […]
This drought just isn’t giving up, but farmers aren’t quitters
California’s central valley has been called America’s salad bowl, but honestly in the last four years, it looks more like a dust bowl than a vegetable garden. The historic drought has caused many California farmers to pay prices for water – just to keep their orchards alive – that most Americans would find unfathomable. Almond, […]
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 […]
Cuts to the Farm Safety Net Jeopardize a National Asset
“When the well’s dry, we shall know the worth of water,” said Benjamin Franklin. Similarly, 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 […]
Crop insurance essential for farmers
Farm policy used to focus on providing a safety net for traditional row crops. That was largely due to the Great Depression and its lingering effects. But farm policy has changed to reflect a country with a diverse agricultural sector. The backbone today is crop insurance, and for good reason: Policies can be customized for […]
