Crop Insurance Today November 2017 - 16

At that same hearing, Rick Gerstenberger,
a local farmer and Chairman of the Board of
Michigan Sugar Company, said crop insurance is
an essential risk management tool for beet growers as well.
"With a higher investment in growing sugar-beets than most other commodities, agricultural lenders are evaluating their lending risk and
basing their loan approvals on the availability of
an adequate safety net, which most crop insurance coverage provides," Gerstenberger testified.
Then, it was the House Agriculture Committee's turn with a summer-long series of listening sessions spanning the country. Committee
Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX) said one of the
common themes during the listening sessions
being the importance of crop insurance. "Over
and over and over we've had that conversation
with folks," he said.
Here is a sampling of what the Chairman heard
about farmers' primary risk management tool.
"Crop insurance is so vital to this state; so vital to every crop in (Texas). Whether it be corn,
wheat, or cotton - all of the crops come very
much into play when it comes to crop insurance."
- Russell Boening, president, Texas Farm Bureau
"Farmers, ag leaders, equipment dealers
- everyone involved in agriculture - agrees
that crop insurance should remain a viable and affordable tool for managing risk."
- Richard Gaona, president, Rolling Plains
Cotton Growers
"How can I and my fellow farmers stay
in business? Number 1 (priority) is crop insurance. ...Crop insurance is indispensable."
- Ben Scholz, National Association of
Wheat Growers
"With more frequent and intense weather patterns, rising interest rates and production costs and lower commodity prices, our
risk has gone up while our balance sheets have
gone down. We simply have to have affordable crop insurance to manage those risks."
- Kyle Peterson, chairman, Southern Minnesota
Beet Sugar Cooperative
"When there's a crop loss, there's going
to be a loss of income on the farm but with
a good crop insurance program, and working
capital, we may help them farm another year."
- Howard Olsen, AgCountry Farm Credit
Services
"I was involved in a hailstorm this year where we
lost the corn and the bean crop on one farm. With
crop insurance, we're not going to make any money
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NOVEMBER2017

at that this year, but I am going to be able to farm
again next year because of risk management tools."
- Kevin Paap, president, Minnesota Farm Bureau
"Crop insurance - please protect it. Crop
insurance is so vitally important. ...It is a key
component to obtaining credit." - Bruce Peterson,
Minnesota Corn Growers
"Crop insurance is so important to me.
We have three families directly that drive income from our farm and if we did not have
crop insurance we would not be able to survive."
- Noah Hultgren, Minnesota Corn Growers
As Farm Bill discussions heated up and listening sessions unfolded, so did the misguided
attacks on America's farm policy.
But the ag community made its voice heard
beyond testimony, taking to newspaper opinion
pages across the country to stress the indispensable role crop insurance plays in helping American farmers provide affordable food for America
and the world.
Dorian Culver, a soybean farmer and crop insurance agent from Harrisonville, Missouri, said
that crop insurance is more important than ever
in a guest column that appeared in The Columbia
Daily Tribune.
He pointed out that in addition to the typical
weather rollercoaster, farmers are facing another year of low prices. Meanwhile, input costs
(farm equipment, fertilizer, land rent, etc.) remain the same.
"It doesn't take a math whiz to see that the
numbers just aren't adding up for our nation's
farmers," Culver wrote.
Jimmy Dodson, chairman of the Farm Credit Bank of Texas, stressed the importance of
crop insurance to both farmers and lenders in
a guest editorial appearing in the Corpus Christi
Caller-Times.
"When it comes to obtaining credit, the vast
majority of crop loans incorporate crop insurance
in their operation plans, and coverage is a requirement for many loans," Dodson wrote. "Without it,
credit would be limited to those with the strongest
balance sheets. Given the recent price trends and
outlook for commodity prices, there just aren't
many farmers who fall into this category."

"It doesn't take a math whiz to
see that the numbers just aren't
adding up for our nation's
farmers," Dorian Culver

Bill Pearson, a longtime crop insurance agent
in Sibley, Iowa, authored a guest column that appeared in the Des Moines Register.
Pearson's article, "Don't Drain the Crop Insurance Pool," discussed the unintended consequences of proposals to cap insurance discounts
or even excluding larger - and less risky -
farms altogether.
And an opinion piece by New York crop insurance agent and farmer Steve Van Voorhis appeared in The Buffalo News.
Van Voorhis' column focused on the role of
crop insurance in protecting the state's agriculture economy. He noted that part of the reason
so many farmers in his state have confidence in
the crop insurance program is because many improvements have been made in recent years. The
last Farm Bill, for example, took steps to make
crop insurance more affordable and available to
specialty crop growers, organic producers and
young farmers.
Van Voorhis had a message for the critics of
crop insurance, as well.
"Sometimes folks are quick to criticize crop
insurance because they don't realize that, like agriculture, the program touches every state in the
nation. It has proven itself to be our most effective risk-management tool," Van Voorhis wrote.
"Let's allow this program to keep it working, not
just for the farmers who put everything on the
line year after year, but for the solvency of our
state and national agriculture economies as well."
In short, supporters of agriculture invested
time and energy into defending a top Farm bill
priority and articulating the reasons crop insurance resonates with Americans across the political spectrum.
What they noted is taxpayers like crop insurance because it means risk is shared with farmers
and insurance companies. They like it because
the American public doesn't have to shoulder the
entire cost when disaster strikes. And, they like
the wide variety of crops that are included in the
nation's insurance program.
It's been almost a year since Sen. Roberts
kicked off this great debate over the 2018 Farm
Bill back in Kansas.
The real work will start soon as Congress
crafts and debates the legislation. And allies of
America's farmers and farm policies will need
to remain vigilant throughout the process because critics will continue their relentless attacks
against the affordability, availability, and viability
of our crop insurance system.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crop Insurance Today November 2017