The following editorial appeared recently in the Grand Forks Herald: OUR OPINION: Don’t take Farm Bill’s success for granted “People can debate how much help the poor should get and whether it’s optimal to deliver aid in the form of food stamps,” the Washington Post editorialized in June. “But it’s beyond debate — or should be —…
We didn’t think it could get more egregious than the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and its hired guns overestimating 2012 drought related expenses by an unbelievable $26 billion then proceeding to compare the men and women who feed America to cheap drunks at an open bar. We were wrong. EWG’s report “Billionaires cash in on…
by Tonya Allen It’s a novel concept—folks sitting down together to sort out their differences. So novel in fact, at least in the halls of Congress, that not a single Conference Committee Meeting has been held all year … until last week. The fact that the first Conference Committee Meeting of the 113th Congress…
An unprecedented flood of sugar imports from Mexico has sent refined sugar prices spiraling down 57 percent in the past 24 months. As a result, prices are currently limping along at about 25 cents per pound – back to the lows of the 1980s. Low prices are nothing new for sugar producers. Sugar prices have been…
by Rene Pastor The arms race in farm subsidies is heating up outside the U.S. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international body comprised of 34 countries to stimulate the global economy, recently flagged the run-up in global agricultural subsidies. An OECD report released earlier this month said government support for…
By Rene Pastor It is called the Thai rice paddy pledging program. The government in Bangkok pays farmers above market prices for their rice – about $4.4 billion above market prices in the 2011/2012 crop year alone. It put the program in place to win farmer votes during parliamentary elections, and despite blowing…
During a meeting with reporters this week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack noted crop insurance “has come under unfair criticism,” adding, “Those who report on it don’t understand it and its importance to the food supply.” Vilsack was undoubtedly referencing a series of articles published by Bloomberg this week, which, according to the news outlet, thoroughly examined crop…
“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” -Edmund Burke On the heels of weather disasters in ’83, ’84, and ’88, rural America was struggling, and lawmakers were losing patience. Compounding the problem was an unparalleled farm debt crisis. America’s food and fiber producers needed assistance, but aid was expensive and…
by Cristina Pastor Approximately 86 percent of planted cropland in the U.S. is protected by crop insurance. The end result? Even when farmers were hit with a string of natural disasters, there wasn’t a single call to Congress for expensive disaster aid. While the U.S. is acknowledged as the leader in the crop insurance industry,…
Global sugar industry leaders and U.S. government officials met in California last week at the 30th International Sweetener Symposium to discuss depressed sugar prices and recent foreign subsidy run-ups. “The accumulated world sugar surplus over the past three seasons has taken the global stocks-to-consumption ratio to above 40 percent for the first time since 2007/08,” said Peter…
Tom Sell, regular contributor to Farm Policy Facts, recently penned a response to a Politico op-ed by Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group entitled “Worst Farm Bill Ever.” Politico does not publish letters to the editor, but the response contains important facts about farm policy and so we are publishing it here. Faber’s article was just the…
In the days before the Internet, it was difficult to really know how the general public felt about any certain issue because, except for the occasional letter to the editor, feedback from the public was scarce to non-existent. Thanks to the coming of the information age, most articles are now followed by a “comment” section,…
by Cristina DC Pastor Small-town Bourg near New Orleans boasts sprawling houses and luxury shops, including a motel for pets — it has become a pretty typical model of modern urban sprawl. But Bourg’s history, and what long-time residents would still say that keeps this parish thriving, is agriculture. Farming feeds people, said farm owner…
Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) is urging his colleagues to vote NO on an amendment proposed by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) that aims to place additional regulatory requirements on our nations farmers and ranchers: Dear Colleague: I write to urge your strong opposition to the amendment by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) that aims to…
Two Dear Colleagues currently circulating highlight the importance of voting NO on the Kind amendment that aims to destroy crop insurance: Oppose Kind Amendment #149 That Aims to Destroy Federal Crop Insurance FROM: The Honorable Frank D. Lucas, Chairman, House Agriculture Committee The Honorable Collin Peterson, Ranking Member, House Agriculture Committee Dear Colleague: I write…
In just about every walk of life, we look for ways to manage risk. Insurance protection is available to protect our families, our health, our homes, our vehicles. It only makes sense that insurance protection should be available to help farmers and ranchers produce something that everyone must have to survive: the nation’s food supply. Unfortunately there are…
Members of the agriculture community applauded the House Committee on Agriculture for moving forward on a five-year farm bill and called for timely action by the full House of Representatives in a letter sent to lawmakers this week. “Failure to pass a five-year farm bill before the end of September would mean continued uncertainty for…
Farm Policy Facts, a diverse coalition of agricultural organizations dedicating to raising awareness about the important role agriculture plays in our economic recovery and national security, today launched a new ad campaign, “Real Farms, Real Families.” The ad campaign, which will run during the upcoming Congressional Farm Bill negotiations, will feature real photos taken by farmers…
Guest opinion by Mark Gerdes, as appears in Ames Tribune One of the beauties of life in our great democracy is that spirited debate about important public policies is not only expected, it’s encouraged. One of the intrinsic rules of these discussions, if they are to be productive and fair, is that the policy itself should…
by Tonya Allen As Farm Bill negotiations continue, opponents of farm policy are again ratcheting up the rhetoric about all of the “rich and famous farmers” in America that are rolling in the dough. It might make for a nice sound bite, but it’s hardly the truth. There’s a “thin green line” of only 210,000…
A new comprehensive analysis of the recently released National Trade Estimates (NTE) and Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) reports show an international playing field sharply tilted against U.S. producers. The analysis, authored by veteran trade advisor and former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Don Phillips, details the many barriers and obstacles currently facing U.S. exporters (both tariff and…
On the issue of means testing in crop insurance, the devil is certainly in the details. But in order to actually find that devil, all you need is a calculator. Take, for example, the introductory remarks on the Senate floor by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who in the context of his amendment to means test crop insurance, inaccurately stated…
by Rene Pastor It’s hard to imagine food rationing was part of daily life in the United States, especially when you can go into your grocery store of choice and buy everything from a steak to a sack of sugar. That wasn’t the reality more than 70 years ago during World War II when German U-boats…
Total government spending on farm safety net programs – including all commodity programs and crop insurance – dropped by two-thirds from fiscal years 2000 to 2012, according to data provided by USDA and the Congressional Budget Office. The reduction took place as spending on commodity programs – including direct, counter-cyclical, loan deficiency and other payments which once…
by Tonya Allen As the United States Congress begins negotiating a new five-year Farm Bill and discussing major spending reductions, Brazil, one of America’s largest competitors in the global marketplace, is doubling down its rate of subsidization. Brazilian farm subsidies increased two-fold in the past three years, according to the Brazilian government’s own recent report to the…
by Tonya Allen The old saying is that politics makes for strange bedfellows. Case in point: Brazil and U.S. farm policy critics. It’s really no surprise that these two have danced together time and time again, considering Brazil, more than any other country, has the most to gain from dismantling U.S. farm policy and weakening…
By Thomas P. Zacharias Admittedly, opponents of farm policy attract more headlines than the men and women who put food on our tables and clothes on our backs. Then again, it is far easier to get attention with sensationalist claims and unsubstantiated data. Take the drought of 2012 for example. Opponents of crop insurance made…
by Bing Von Bergen There is a lot of buzz in Washington again this year about the prospects of a farm bill. For those of us in agriculture, a five-year farm bill is one of the few things Congress can do to take some of the guesswork out of farming. That’s because farming is an…
This is the first in a series of articles that will examine the cost of failure when strong farm policy is not enacted. Food scarcity: it is not something we often think about. We are, after all, the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind. Not free of want — but certainly a land of plenty … flowing…
by Rene Pastor To many people, Brazil’s image in the sugar and ethanol market is that of low-cost operators who used their smarts and free-market philosophies to become a top producer and exporter in the world. That, it seems, is largely spin. The reality is that Brazil’s government is subsidizing its producers, while simultaneously criticizing…
by Cristina DC Pastor USA Rice Federation (USA Rice) and Ducks Unlimited (DU) recently forged a new partnership that will serve as a model of cooperation and communication between a farm group and a conservation organization. The USA Rice-DU Stewardship Partnership will address rice production, waterfowl and water conservation projects, programs and policies that are…
As crop insurers prepare for the Farm Bill and funding deliberations in the future, National Crop Insurance Services (NCIS) has released a detailed question-and-answer resource laying out the facts about crop insurance and dispelling some of the most common arguments against crop insurance put forth by its critics. “Crop insurance is the single most important…
When putting together a Top 10 List of agriculture-themed videos it would be tempting to choose the ones that have gone viral and we have all enjoyed, like the epic Dodge Ram “Farmer” commercial, the “I’m Farming and I Grow It” and “Farm It Maybe” parodies, among others. Instead, Farm Policy Facts chose to use…
Farm Policy Facts has released Farm Bill 101, a current and comprehensive guide to the nine titles that make up the Farm Bill. The resource includes a title-by-title history and summary and is an essential tool for those wishing to better understand this complex package of agriculture, conservation, rural development, research and food assistance policies.…
Former USDA Chief Economist Keith Collins, Ph.D., predicts a smaller farm safety net in the future, but one that cements crop insurance. “We will see a greater evolution in the reliance on crop insurance in 2013,” Collins said. Collins stated that one only needs to look at the past few years to recognize…
by Rene Pastor It was the one thing that was on the mind of most everyone at the 2013 annual outlook conference of the U.S. Agriculture Department. Weather. Can a drought as horrific as 2012 spill into 2013? “There are … risks that we can’t control,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in his keynote speech…
As lawmakers debate the next Farm Bill, more than 40 commodity groups, lending organizations, input suppliers and other stakeholders are calling on Congress to oppose to any changes to crop insurance that would discourage producer participation in insurance or undermine private sector delivery of insurance products. “In agriculture, one thing is for certain: crop loss…
Farm Policy Facts has released its Top 10 list of agriculture-themed editorials. The list, which was shared via social media (@FPFNews, Facebook) over the past two weeks, includes guest op-eds in that have appeared in major news outlets across the country. Authors include Wesley Clark, Miss America Teresa Scanlan, former Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest…
(OVERLAND PARK, Kan.) — Critics who said that farmers who purchased crop insurance were “praying for drought, not praying for rain” or were “laughing all the way to the bank” during last summer’s historic drought were strongly rebuked by farmers, crop insurance agents and claims adjusters in a new video released today by National Crop…
Published in The Hill Congress Blog There is a huge story playing out right before our very eyes this year in agriculture that nearly everyone is missing: Despite the fact that this nation has faced two of the worst farming years in decades – with devastating drought in the Southern Plains and flooding in the…