Two of the nation’s leading agricultural economists say federal crop insurance is greatly over-subsidised, adding yet another authoritative voice to those calling for reform, ewg.org reported on Saturday. For years, EWG has been pushing Congress to reform the crop insurance program in order to save taxpayers billions and protect land and water quality. But key members of the House and Senate Agriculture committees who represent farm country routinely defend the extravagant subsidies. This week, two agricultural economics professors, Carl Zulauf of Ohio State University and David Orden of Virginia Tech, argued in an analysis published by the International Food Policy Research Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, that “US crop insurance is over-subsidized…” Rather than the current 62 percent subsidy, they calculated, taxpayers should cover a much lower amount – 45 percent. To encourage farmers to sign up for crop insurance, the government pays nearly two-thirds of the premiums. Not surprisingly, farmers love this. They get great coverage on the cheap. posted on December 22, 2014 at 12:00AM jtnng.blogspot/
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 23:10:08 +0000
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