crop insurance subsidies News

Trump Budget Would Cut Crop Insurance Subsidies

President Donald Trump’s “I LOVE YOU!” tweet to farmers is facing another challenge: Budget cuts that will slash subsidies for crop insurance and small growers. Trump’s 2020 budget, released Monday, calls for a 15 percent funding drop for the Department …

Budget Deal Called ‘Devastating’ to Crop Insurance

The two-year budget deal produces savings from one of the most popular programs in farm country — federally subsidized crop insurance — and farm state lawmakers are furious. Senators and House members said Tuesday they weren’t notified of the cut …

Farm Bill Costs Soar Despite Great Harvest

U.S. farmers are about to reap a bumper harvest not just in corn and soybeans but also in new subsidies that could soar to $10 billion, blowing a hole in the government’s promise that its new five-year farm bill would …

Environmental Group Says $7.8 Billion Wasted by Crop Insurance Program

A report commissioned by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) says that the federal crop insurance program over-compensated Corn Belt farmers by $7.8 billion during the 2012 drought. Insurance payouts that year totaled $14 billion whereas $6.2 billion would have been …

House Backs Limiting Crop Insurance Subsidies for Wealthiest Growers

Farm subsidy reformers praised a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives to make the wealthiest growers pay more for federally subsidized crop insurance, the first eligibility limit on a program that costs $9 billion a year. The non binding …

Crop Insurance Critics, Defenders in Last Push Over Reforms

Critics of the U.S. crop insurance program are calling for cuts to it and other agribusiness subsidies as Congress revamps farm policy. A bipartisan group of lawmakers planned to meet yesterday in Washington to re-examine U.S. farm spending for the …

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

A Depression-era program intended to save the nation’s farmers from ruin has grown into a 21st- century crutch enabling affluent growers and financial institutions to thrive at U.S. taxpayer expense. Federal crop insurance encourages farmers to gamble on risky plantings …

Crop Insurance, High Crop Prices Leading to Eco-Catastrophe: Environmental Group

Sustained high prices for corn, soybeans and wheat combined with record U.S. crop-insurance payouts are encouraging farmers to plow fragile lands and put ecosystems at risk, an environmental advocacy group said. Northern Plains counties have seen the highest conversion of …

House Passes Republican Farm Bill Without Food Stamps

House Republicans passed a five-year U.S. farm-policy bill that retains subsidies to farmers and strips out food-stamp spending, costing it Democratic support. The plan was approved today 216-208, with no Democrats in support. The measure also would repeal underlying provisions …

Crop Insurance Subsidies Encourage Farmers to Buy Too Much Coverage: Economist

U.S. farmers have collected a record $17 billion in crop insurance payments on drought-hit 2012 crops but the system could have spent half as much and still saved growers from ruinous losses, an insurance specialist said on Wednesday as the …