Tag: federal crop insurance program

Crop insurance payouts break records and spark debates

Crop insurance

Widespread drought across Iowa and other Midwest states lead to massive payments from the program. The droughts throughout the 2012 growing season will have generated an estimated record level of payments, reaching $16 billion, which has led critics to call for changes to the government subsidy system. They feel that the taxpayers are paying for an inefficient subsidy and the government can’t afford it. Farmers and growers purchase their crop insurance from private insurers. That said, those policy premiums are subsidized by the federal government, and losses over certain levels…

Read More

Crop insurance study shows coverage saved thousands of jobs

Crop Insurance

It is believed that employment was maintained for 17,000 people in Iowa and Nebraska due to the protection. The results of a recent study have shown that the payouts from farms that had federally subsidized crop insurance generated an economic impact of an estimated $2.2 billion across a region of four states, and that it saved 17,000 jobs in Iowa and Nebraska, alone. The researchers who conducted the study were seeking to define the impact of the coverage on the state economies. The purpose of the research was to find…

Read More

Crop insurance fraud ring bust made, worth $100 million

Julie Campbell
Crop Insurance Fraud

A North Carolina scam involved 41 people who have either pleaded guilty or reached plea agreements. Federal investigators have now discovered the truth behind a massive crop insurance bust that involved dozens of farmers, brokers, claims adjusters, and agents in eastern North Carolina, which had intended to defraud their policies for at least $100 million. Authorities have said that the investigation is ongoing, but it has already proved to be the largest scam ring in the U.S. So far, there have been 41 defendants that have either pleaded guilty to…

Read More

Crop insurance program changes are supported by some farmers

Crop Insurance cuts

Some growers in Kansas are giving the nod to a bill that would decrease newly converted land subsidies. Although it would be natural to expect that farmers would be entirely against legislation that would place a tougher limit on crop insurance subsidies, there are some that are expressing their belief that the move is indeed designed to protect their interests over the long term. The changes to the subsidies would mean a reduction for grasslands that had not previously been agriculture space. These changes have to do with the Protect…

Read More

Crop insurance teetering on the “fiscal cliff”

crop insurance program

The farm bill has been pushed to help to save the protection subsidies from the axe. Lawmakers from rural areas who are concerned that the $9 billion in annual federal subsidies for crop insurance may be considered to be an easy target for cutting spending in order to avoid the looming fiscal cliff. They are now seeking a new way to compromise on the farm bill in order to continue protecting farmers. The House and Senate Agriculture Committee chairpersons had already been prepared to use a new farm bill in…

Read More