Sara Wyant is president of Agri-Pulse Communications Inc., and publishes a bi-weekly newsletter, Agri-Pulse, on food and farm policy. For more information or to contact Wyant visit www.agri-pulse.com.

After record losses, RMA looks to expand and improve crop insurance

By Sara Wyant With more than 95 percent of 2012 crop insurance claims already paid, it appears that $17.3 billion may be close to the new record

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The bill would create a “blue card” visa program for experienced farm workers, and new versions of the current agricultural worker visa program. “The bill establishes a new ‘blue card’ program for legal status and a pathway to citizenship for current undocumented farm workers and creates two new agricultural visa programs to ensure farmers can legally hire future workers when local workers are unavailable,” Feinstein said. Under the proposal, the new agricultural worker program would ... [Read More]

Senate Democrats, along with their key stakeholders, recently huddled in a Senate office building to send a strong message to rural America: We’ve got your back. The Rural Summit, sponsored by the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, was a half-day event that focused on a number of rural issues, ranging from the farm bill to infrastructure and education. For his part, Pryor emphasized the importance of passing a workable farm bill for all regions and reducing regulatory burdens in ... [Read More]

But that doesn’t mean some tribes don’t embrace horse slaughter as a responsible solution to the thousands of horses overpopulating their rangeland, polluting their streams and running roughshod over their cultural practices. While noting, “no other president has done more to include Indian tribes in his priorities,” he expressed “serious disappointment” with recent statements coming from representatives of the Agriculture Department on the issue of horse slaughter and the processing of ... [Read More]

“Agricultural immigration issues are extraordinarily complicated,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-UT, who worked on the farm worker provisions. But Hatch and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, also helped broker the deal between agricultural employers and farm workers. The new farm worker program would replace the current H-2A program and provide a long-term path to legal status for undocumented workers. [Read More]

“These noncompliances continue to illustrate the risks of improper payments affecting taxpayers, as USDA could have avoided approximately $74 million (of the $5.5 billion) in improper payments by meeting established reduction targets,” OIG wrote in its report. The FNS’s National School Lunch program and School Breakfast program reported estimated improper payment percentages of 15.53 and 25.18, respectively. For the FNS’s Child and Adult Care Food Program the department reported only a ... [Read More]

In an opinion piece for the Daily Yonder, Aleta Botts, a former Agriculture Committee staffer for Rep. Collin Peterson, D-MN, pointed out that the proposal "means additional seats at the table for programs distributing ever smaller pots of money." While Botts conceded that multiple definitions across RD programs were confusing, she wondered "which small-town mayors are more troubled by multiple definitions of rural than by efforts to allow larger, more developed neighboring communities to ... [Read More]

Willis told participants at a recent crop insurance industry convention to be ever vigilant about program integrity--clamping down on waste, fraud and abuse in the program--warning that crop insurance can't afford any negative publicity. The concern about potential budget cuts was echoed by a panel of farm organization lobbyists who participated in the crop insurance industry program. [Read More]

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-OK, has seemingly gone out of his way to assure producers that they can count on receiving direct payments in October. Mitchell Harris, CEO of Ag Texas in Lubbock, says he is including direct payments in his projections for 2013 and encouraging customers to sign up early for the 2013 farm program. "The reality of low cotton prices and no direct or counter-cyclical program payments will not produce positive results. [Read More]

Almost 300 shiny new wind turbines, part of the Flat Ridge 2 Wind Farm, are now generating clean, renewable energy on a 66,000-acre site across four counties in southern Kansas. The wind farm is jointly owned by BP Wind Energy and Sempra U.S. Gas & Power. But wind and other forms of renewable energy have also been bolstered by state-based Renewable Portfolio Standards. [Read More]