Crop Insurance: A Growing Problem in Time of Record Farm Profits

By and David J. Lynch | September 9, 2013

  • September 9, 2013 at 2:55 pm
    John Smith says:
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    Your data is inaccurate. Your article is very skewed and biased. Try getting accurate information before writing an article dealing with something this important.

    • September 10, 2013 at 10:31 am
      jw says:
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      Which particular point is inaccurate? I actually want to know.

  • September 9, 2013 at 3:05 pm
    Norm says:
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    This is how facts can be converted to the use of the author. As an example the author used the Independent agents and spending for lobbing. What is not said is they lobbied for not only crop insurance but all of the following as well. Flood insurance, Health insurance, insurance company reforms, agent license reforms, terrorism coverage just to mention a few. I would doubt the author checked but only $50,000 may have been spent lobbing for crop insurance – not $1,600,000. This is just one of many errors. Check your facts before you publish!!!

    • September 10, 2013 at 10:35 am
      jw says:
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      If you read that paragraph, you’ll notice that the author doesn’t say Independent agents spent $1.6M lobbying for crop insurance. In fact, the next sentence mentions only two that specifically mention crop insurance. I took that to mean that the others lobbied on other topics.

  • September 9, 2013 at 3:49 pm
    Sherinae says:
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    Our agency specialize in crop insurance. This is just another city dweller that has no concept of how farming works. If they cut subsidies for farmers, small family farms will become a thing of the past. It will all be commercial and then we will be paying a great deal more for all of that food that our farmers grow not to mention the cotton, soybeans, and other crops that go into making clothing and other products. It has rained in our area practically every day for 3 months. Crops have drowned. Fertilizer has been leached from the soil. Look for peanuts and peanut product to go up. The farmers are locked into a contracted price–they cannot benefit from a cost increase in the world market. Farmers contract their crops at the beginning of the year–before they know if there will be a disaster or not. The only people who benefit from a disaster are the middle men–the buyers and sellers. I get so angry from reading these articles when there are such a bias and so many incorrect facts being spouted. My husband farmed for over 20 yrs. and we finally had to give it up or lose everything we owned. We had crop insurance, but with several bad years in a row and so much money going into farming besides the seeds that go into the ground (equipment, fuel, maintenance, fertilizer, insecticide, fungicide, repairs, and etc., crop insurance does NOT usually cover all of the expense.

    • September 9, 2013 at 6:43 pm
      jw says:
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      Then stop calling it “insurance’ and just call it what it is corporate welfare.

    • September 10, 2013 at 10:38 am
      jw says:
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      different jw here, by the way…

      Why is it wrong to allow small operations to be purchased or taken over by the large corporate farms? In almost every other industry, the larger the better. What makes farming so special?

      • September 10, 2013 at 6:04 pm
        bky says:
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        “In almost every other industry, the larger the better.”

        This is working out so well for us in many industries such as banking, etc. But it appears to be the way we are headed. The Federal regulators want fewer companies so that they can regulate “better”, consumer attention spans are so short that they end up buying branded products from just a few companies, overseas competition forces economy of scale decisions that support further market concentration, and in the end it is the American consumer and worker who pay the price.

        FWIW, the insurance industry is moving in the same direction.

    • September 11, 2013 at 3:48 pm
      Libby says:
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      The problem with the subsidies, Sherinae, is that they go to the large corporate farmers as well as the small independent farmers. The large corporate farmers should not qualify for subsidies. Let’s level the playing field for the small guys.

      • September 11, 2013 at 5:54 pm
        Don't Call Me Shirley says:
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        Libby, that would make too much sense, but I agree with you. I have no problem with helping out farmers who are struggling, but I don’t like giving money to those who are making more money than I do (especially those who don’t even do the work themselves). And none for Maurice Greenberg!!

  • September 9, 2013 at 6:03 pm
    rick says:
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    This is just more welfare!!!
    What happened to all the people that say let the free market take care of itself?? What happened to all the champions of capitalism?? I would never get out of farming or learn how to farm better if I knew I would be getting a check regardless if my crops failed or succeded.
    One last think with these farms raking in all this money why do they actively encourage slave labor by the hiring of illegal alliens to work their farms??

    • September 11, 2013 at 5:56 pm
      Don't Call Me Shirley says:
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      They are strangely silent when “government interference” benefits the wealthy.

      • September 12, 2013 at 12:52 pm
        Libby says:
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        Touche!



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