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Stabenow calls for crop insurance updates

The Chair of the Senate Ag Committee is outlining her priorities for crop insurance in the next farm bill with fellow lawmakers.

In a letter this week, Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow says she’s open to proposals for every commodity to receive increases for insurance with effective reference prices like what the Price Loss Coverage program provides.

Stabenow says there’s a need for more options with new policies that protect farmers from high costs and low margins while providing access to affordable credit.

She wants growers of all commodities to have options just like cotton farmers were given in the 2018 legislation between base acres and area-based policies.

Stabenow also says she’d like to double funding for trade promotion programs with funds outside of the farm bill while leaving nutrition funding untouched.

She points to programs like the Whole Farm Revenue Protection and Micro Farm Insurance programs that need to be more streamlined to help more specialty crop and livestock producers.