Proposed cuts to crop insurance and a restructuring of the nation’s food aid programs are drawing criticism from the American Soybean Association (ASA) and state soybean groups.

Those proposals were part of President Obama’s budget proposal for 2014, released last week.  It includes a seven-point-four billion dollar reduction in the federal crop insurance program. 

Carol Balvanz of the Iowa Soybean Association

But the policy director for the Iowa Soybean Association, Carol Balvanz, says it’s the wrong place to look for savings.

“Crop insurance paid out this past year, but it hasn’t always—and if you back the last ten years, farmers have more than paid their fair share,” says Balvanz. “So making cuts to this just because it’s a good place to gather a couple percentage points of money does not seem to be wise planning.”

In addition to the proposed cuts to crop insurance, ASA reiterated its strong opposition to a proposed restructuring of the nation’s international food aid programs.

The proposed change would replace in-kind aid with cash vouchers for purchases of food aid from foreign suppliers instead of commodities grown by American farmers.  But Iowa Soybean’s Balvanz says simply giving cash to foreign countries is a risky proposition.

“Cash is very fungible—it’s very usable for things other than food,” she says, “and many of the countries where our products end up are so poor that I’m not sure they have the infrastructure in place to assure that that money would actually go for either food production in that country or to buy food for the poorest people.”

However, ASA points out there were also positives in the President’s budget. Several of ASA’s top priorities were reflected in the proposal, including both agricultural research and infrastructure.

AUDIO: Carol Balvanz (2:09 MP3)