Articles by Alan Bjerga

Lost Pheasants, Disappearing Grasslands: Is Crop Insurance to Blame?

The hunters tramp through neck-high prairie grass with a pair of golden retrievers named Moe and Buck, flushing out birds in a freezing autumn drizzle. When one flutters from the South Dakota grassland, Dick Schmith, 58, calls “rooster!” Guns rise …

Rural Groups Push Back on Crop Insurance Cuts

Rural groups say they’ll fight a proposed $100 million-a-year cut in crop insurance subsidies, a measure that has won the support of both houses of Congress and could be a test of agriculture’s influence in Washington. The House of Representatives …

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 …

Opponents Doubt Savings Promised By Farm Bill

A drop in the price of corn, rice and other crops may trigger so much additional aid to farmers under a bill being considered by the U.S. House that it would wipe out the bill’s projected savings in crop subsidies, …