This year marks the tenth anniversary of Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP), a novel insurance product that offers farmers nationwide the option to insure the revenue of their entire operation, including crop, livestock, and nursery production, under a single policy. WFRP also rewards adoption of business practices that reduce risk with its premium discount for crop […]
Risk Management Agency
Uninsured: Federal Crop Insurance Program Leaves Most Farms Unprotected
Crop insurance is the cornerstone of the farm safety net, insuring farms for losses from unpredictable weather, market fluctuations, and other risks. Consequently, the federal crop insurance program (FCIP) is the costliest part of agriculture production spending, as taxpayers subsidize the program to the tune of billions of dollars each year. Despite being a cornerstone […]
Digging into the House Farm Bill: Part 3
This is the third post in a multi-part blog series analyzing the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 (FFNSA), which was reported out of the House Committee on Agriculture on Friday, May 24. This post provides a deep-dive analysis of the bill’s potential impacts on the farm safety net, farmers’ ability to access land and capital, fair competition, and treatment of food workers. … Read More →
Big Wins on Whole-Farm Revenue Protection
The Risk Management Agency (RMA) recently announced significant changes to improve the Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) program…. Read More →
$300 Million Invested into New Organic Transition Initiative
The Organic Transition Initiative (OTI) is USDA’s recent program aimed at helping “build new and better markets and streams of income” for organic farmers and producers, by providing producers with technical assistance, including farmer-to-farmer mentoring, financial assistance for conservation and crop insurance, and support developing markets. … Read More →
A Small Step Toward Crop Insurance Modernization: Modifying the Prevented Planting Policy
For years, one presidential budget after the next has proposed modernizing our federal crop insurance program. Historically, those proposals have fallen by the wayside; but this week the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) made a small but significant step forward by updating the crop insurance program’s “prevented planting” policy. Prevented planting […]
Progress on Organic Insurance Options and Data Collection
According to two recent reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to Congress, the Department is making some significant progress in their effort to increase the availability of data on organic production as well as the availability of insurance options for organic producers. Quality production data and the expansion of insurance options are inexorably […]
Have Access Improvements to the Federal Crop Insurance Program Gone Far Enough?
If you’re an onion farmer in Louisiana or a blueberry farmer in Iowa, the answer is most likely – no. The Federal Crop Insurance Program has gone through a host of changes since 2000 (the last time Congress passed a major stand-alone overhaul of the program), including several as part of the 2014 Farm Bill, […]
Inter-Agency Blockages Threaten to Halt Further Progress on Organic Crop Insurance
Editor’s Note: For more information on the state of organic agriculture, see this article’s sister post: “Consumer Sentiment and Supply Scalability Will Determine Future of Organic Price Premiums“ In just one year’s time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) has more than doubled the number of organic crops that are able to […]
$8.7 Million Available for Risk Management Education and Targeted States Programs
The Federal Crop Insurance Program, managed by the Risk Management Agency (RMA), provides subsidized coverage through private insurance companies to over $100 billion worth of agricultural products across 298 million acres. Despite a seemingly high level of farmer participation overall, many underserved, organic, diversified, and specialty crop farmers lack information about and access to insurance […]