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Farm Group Leader Calls Ag Secretary’s View Of Crop Insurance ‘False’

Photo: REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein

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Tim Pearce Energy Reporter
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Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue’s characterization of crop insurance at an “Agriculture Summit” in Montana was “false,” according to American Association of Crop Insurers board of directors member Kelly Deterding.

Perdue addressed an audience of around 700, mostly farmers and ranchers at the start of the month, attempting to sell cuts to farm appropriations by implying the subsidies are vulnerable to fraud.

“But just let’s face it, you don’t buy insurance on your house hoping it’ll burn down, do you? We don’t want to do that. And neither do we want to buy crop insurance hoping our crop fails so we can file,” Perdue told his audience. “So, we’ve got to get out of the mindset that, if I invest a dollar in crop insurance, I want to make sure I get a dollar-ten or plus out of that.”

“Crop insurance is vital to American agriculture,” Deterding told The Daily Caller News Foundation Monday. “It is the backbone of the farm safety net.”

Deterding responded directly to Perdue’s characterization of crop insurance.

“Farmers do not make money on crop insurance. That is a misnomer. That is not true,” Deterding said. “Farmers do not put that crop in the ground hoping it will get hailed out … They put that crop in the ground with the intent to take it to market.”

Without programs like crop yield insurance and revenue insurance provided in Congess’ Farm Bill, crop insurance would “implode,” Deterding said. The industry relies on a vast and varied number of consumers to diversify the risk of providing farmers with insurance. With the help of government funding, the system is large enough to support itself by covering a majority of farmers.

Losing the large web of crop insurance would lead to increasing prices Americans would pay for groceries. Holes in the web would cause some farmers to go bankrupt, producing less food overall. The grocery bill for the Average American would double or triple, Deterding said.

“It’s very important that the congress stay involved with the infrastructure of crop insurance because it provides a safe food supply for all Americans,” she said.

Trump’s budget proposal cuts farm programs by more than $38 billion over 10 years. Crop insurance would take the biggest whack at $28 billion.

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