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Stabenow: ‘strong case’ for safety net
The chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee says that in view of the federal deficit and current high commodity prices, there needs to be a credible debate for an effective farm safety net in the next farm bill. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) is quick to point out that strong commodity prices are weighed against farmers’ high input costs. But she says it’s important that the story of production agriculture be told.
“We all know in the context of what we’re dealing with right now that we’re going to have to make some changes as it relates to direct payments, but having said that, we have to have a strong farm safety net, so there’s a lot of support for increasing crop insurance,” Senator Stabenow told farm broadcasters gathered this week on Capitol Hill.
Stabenow says there’s a lot of support for strengtheing crop insurance and expanding the number of commodities that it covers. She also gets comments in favor of simplifying the ACRE program, which had few enrollments the last crop year, despite encompasing features that Stabenow says make sense.
“I don’t know the answer to that yet,” said Senator Stabenow, “I’m asking all of the groups to tell us what works in terms of the overall safety net.”
Senator Stabenow stresses a workable safety net should be made part of the next farm bill and “I’ll make a strong case for that.”
The crop insurance has been a life saver, and may well be this year again since we are not getting any moisture. Hearing about the flood waters devastating the land in the Mississippi River one knows that they will have to depend on the insurance money to get through.