News

The intersection between the farm safety net and climate policy

The ranking member of the House Ag Committee says climate policy and crop insurance shouldn’t be tied together in the next farm bill.

Glenn “GT” Thompson is a Republican from Pennsylvania. “How can we change the safety net or crop insurance to be more climate friendly? I think that’s looking at the problem completely the wrong way. Rather, we should be asking ourselves how do we make climate policy farmer friendly?”

National Corn Growers Association President Chris Edgington says the two should remain separate. “From the fact that risk management is risk management and conservation is conservation, and we are working very hard in both areas to improve and become more efficient as crop producers.”

Edgington says a one-sized-fits-all solution doesn’t work. “To talk about climate and risk management tools in the same package and have to be done this way does not fit well with corn,” he says. “It’s tough to do the same thing in Southern Texas as it is in Northern Minnesota or the state of Washington versus Maine or let alone Central Iowa.”

They made their remarks earlier this week during a House Ag Committee on a 2022 Review of the Farm Bill.