Potato Grower

72 POTATO GROWER | JANUARY 2018 Diggin' In Diggin' In Diggin' In Diggin' In Diggin' In Diggin' In POLICY | By Suzanne Bopp Crop insurance, growers' most important risk-management tool, faces threats in the new budget. Managing Risk The disastrous effects of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl initially drove Congress to authorize the federal crop insurance program. Since then, the program has been a critical tool to help growers affordably manage the many risks that come with farming. Today, it's widely acknowledged to be the best risk management tool crop producers have; it protects 90 percent of U.S. cropland. "Almost any farmer you talk to across the country will tell you crop insurance is the primary risk management tool that they need," says Ryan Findlay, industry relations lead for Syngenta. "We can talk about trade. We can talk about prices. We can talk about farm bill support programs. But farmers will tell you they need to have crop insurance." But today, farm operators are concerned about its future, because the Trump administration's budget has called for $29 billion in cuts to the crop insurance program over the next 10 years. CUTS TO PREMIUM SUBSIDIES The bulk of those cuts—$16 billion—would come from enacting a $40,000 limit on crop insurance premium subsidies. Currently, there is no limit, and the federal government pays approximately 60 percent of the premium cost for most common levels of crop insurance coverage. Data from the Government Accountability Office in 2011 showed that 26 percent of crops covered would be negatively impacted by a $40,000 cap. "It actually hits a lot of farmers," says Tara Smith, vice president of federal affairs at Michael Torrey Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based agricultural lobbying firm. "It's not just big farmers; it's not just wealthy farmers. It disproportionately hits farmers who grow high-value crops and farmers who are in high-risk areas and need crop insurance the most." Those are also the reasons the USDA has cited in calling this idea "ill-advised." And although every grower wouldn't hit the cap, every grower would be affected by it through the weakening of the overall insurance pool, says Laura Peterson, head of federal government relations at Syngenta. "The crop insurance program is dependent on a lot of people participating; that's how you manage the cost of the program. If we start taking people out of the program, it would impact every farmer." DESIGN-BUILD GENERAL CONTRACTOR AGRICULTURE. FOOD PROCESSING. 1,850,000CWT OF STORAGE BUILT IN 2017 www.hansen-rice.com 171104HanRic13h.indd 1 12/13/17 11:06 AM

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