NEWS FLASH

Crop Insurance That Ignores Climate Change Makes Agriculture Riskier, Punishes Family Farms | “Creating a federal crop insurance system, with no limits on federal outlays, without simultaneously giving farmers the tools to adapt to the effects of climate change is incredibly irresponsible from both a food security and fiscal perspective,” the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy writes. “It’s like offering a home owner a fire insurance policy, but not even requiring the most basic preventative measures, such as smoke alarms or fire extinguishers.” Members of Congress are planning to expand the crop insurance program in the Farm Bill “without a concurrent focus on climate adaptation,” which “makes agriculture riskier for everyone.” “If, in the face of climate change, we decide to base our farm support system primarily on risk-management products and offer publicly subsidized financial risk mitigation to farmers, it is only logical and fair that we ask them to take steps to reduce risk on the ground,” IATP concludes. “In the same way that farmers must comply with soil conservation standards (‘conservation compliance’) in order to receive current federal farm payments, the Farm Bill should link ‘climate compliance’ with eligibility for federally subsidized crop insurance policies.”