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Minnesota farmer says federal crop insurance is NOT a safety net

A central Minnesota farmer argues federal crop insurance should not be considered a safety net.

Darrel Mosel of Gaylord, who also serves on the Land Stewardship Project’s federal policy committee, says the system is broken.

“Right now is a glaring example as the prices go down, the crop insurance coverage keeps getting reduced.  And we aren’t able to pay the bills.”

Mosel tells Brownfield federal crop insurance has been a poor replacement for programs that worked.

“The tools that really worked for us were the Grain Reserve (and) Set Aside (programs).  When prices start to fall like they are in the last four years, just putting a Grain Reserve in place would help to buffer that a bit.  There’s not another business on the planet that doesn’t manage its inventory to meet its demand.”

He says the Farm Bill should be completely re-written, otherwise there will be a massive loss of farmers similar to the 1980’s.