As lawmakers prepare to write the next farm bill, one farm-state Senator says current weather events highlight the importance of crop insurance. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, says it’s a matter of having an abundant and affordable food supply.
She says; “We don’t want to be one of those countries that have seen escalating ag prices and also they have to import all their food. We want to be a country that grows crops, that produces meat that is able to export to the world as well as feed our own people. So, I think it’ll be a lesson and shows the need of crop insurance whenever we have difficult weather events, whether they be droughts, whether they be floods, whether they be any kind of disastrous storm, we’ve got to stand ready, and that is why we have this safety net in the farm bill.”
Klobuchar says food security is national security; “We’ve always been really smart about including in this bill, the nutrition programs, which includes schools and all kinds of other nutrition assistance to vessel support to pass the farm bill, because we do have some people from urban areas that don’t have big rural areas, that still support the farm bill because of the nutrition programs or the conservation program.”
Klobuchar has other priorities for agriculture as well; “One of the things that we want to make sure is that all of our FSA and our economic development agencies are strong, that’s always helpful. But the other is a pipeline of people and students going into ag, and so that’s why I’m one of the chief co-sponsors of a bill that focuses on community colleges offering training for those that want to go into ag.”
Story provided by NAFB News Service and Joe Gill, KASM, Albany, Minnesota
