Judge Dismisses N.D. Crop Lawsuit

August 7, 2002

A judge in Fargo, N.D. dismissed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the agency’s cancellation of a type of federal crop insurance for durum wheat last year.

According to the Associated Press, the judge found that the government did not err in canceling the coverage. A group of North Dakota farmers sued the agriculture department after it cancelled coverage for durum wheat, which is used for making pasta. The state is the country’s largest producer of durum.

The government claimed it had to stop offering coverage because it could not set a base price for the policies. The agriculture department said there had not been enough trades on the futures market for durum wheat, therefore it could not establish the lowest price for the wheat at which farmers would be covered.

The judge found the government’s argument to be reasonable.

In their lawsuit, however, the farmers claimed that a base price could have been set if the government had examined a longer period of futures transactions.

Topics Lawsuits Legislation Agribusiness

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