National Black Farmers Association and EWG Applaud Crop Insurance Reform in Budget Deal

WASHINGTON - John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association, and Scott Faber, vice president of government affairs of EWG, released the following joint statement on a critical crop insurance reform included in the budget deal the House will consider today.

For too long, our federal crop insurance program has done too much to benefit crop insurance companies and the biggest farm businesses and too little to help small farmers manage the ups and downs of agriculture. The reforms included in the budget deal strike the right balance between taxpayers and crop insurance companies, who have enjoyed underwriting gains of more than $12 billion over the last decade.

The budget deal guarantees these immensely profitable crop insurance companies a 9 percent rate of return – a rate of return that far exceeds the profitability of most of America’s farmers. Reducing their rate of return from 14 percent to 9 percent will have no impact on the price farmers pay for crop insurance and no impact on the array of choices available to farmers. Giant crop insurance companies should not be profiting at the expense of farmers or taxpayers, and the time to reign in their windfall profits is long overdue.

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