Farm Policy Facts

May 3, 2012

In a League of its Own

New York City is the fashion and financial capital of the world. Hollywood has been home to some of history’s greatest actors and agents. Detroit is known for harboring America’s auto industry, and Pittsburgh will always be able to claim that its steel helped make America.

Each industry has its place in our nation’s fabric, both figuratively and physically. But there is one industry that is unique in this way. Transcending time and place, it is as relevant to our economy today as it was 200 years ago, and it calls each state home.

U.S. agriculture is truly in a league of its own. An industry that directly affects each person on a daily basis—at least three times a day for most, and more times for many of us—agriculture picked up the slack when the rest of the economy relied on CPR from a government that’s already overextended.

Recognizing the country’s challenges and its own successes, agriculture added to its uniqueness by being arguably the only industry willing to help Washington get its financial house in order.

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Crop Insurance 101

Earlier this week, National Crop Insurance Services (NCIS) released the first of what is to be a series of educational videos explaining the importance of crop insurance and its functionality among American agriculture.

In this video, aptly titled "Crop Insurance 101," Tom Zacharias, president of NCIS, reviews the history of the program, why it was created, and why Congress should "do no harm" to it in the upcoming Farm Bill.

Before crop insurance existed, Zacharias explains, disaster would strike and farmers would be forced to go to Congress for help. Congress would then have to pass disaster legislation and appropriate funds, which would then be passed on to the USDA where a program would be put in place to finally, pay the farmers whose crop had been destroyed.

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What Are They Afraid Of?

Unfortunately, when it comes to getting out the facts on U.S. farm policy, the First Amendment may not be enough because some in the media have decided readers should get only one side of the story.

In the past, we have printed many letters to the editor and columns responding to an attack on farm policy that were never run in the paper to which they were sent. Here are two more.

It seems to us that if the media is confident in the policy positions they endorse or want to foster healthy debate, what threat do dissenting opinions pose?

In response to a sharp critique of farm policy in an op-ed appearing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

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