Primer: Revenue Insurance in the 2012 Farm Bill

by: Brad Wilson

Fri May 11, 2012 at 15:42:12 PM PDT

This is a simple collection of online articles to explain revenue insurance to farm bill advocates.  I've taken the trouble to collect the titles and links (ie. by going through APAC's year long lists of articles on a variety of farm policy topics,) to create accessibility to these Revenue Insurance articles.  Mostly they come from IATP and APAC, two sources that do excellent work on these and other farm policy issues.  I've also included one op-ed from an insurance group, plus my own rebuttal of it, which gives my general views on the topic.

Included here are descriptions from, and some analysis of, Revenue Insurance Proposals from the following groups:

National Corn Growers Association,
American Farm Bureau Federation,
American Soybean Association,
Environmental Working Group,
CARD at Iowa State University (in part for EWG)
National Association of FSA County Office Employees,
American Association of Crop Insurers
Association of Professional Insurance Agents (op-ed)
(Brad's online rebuttal to the previous item, APIA)

I hope to soon add some talking points on Revenue Insurance in another blog or two at my blog home page here:  http://www.lavidalocavore.org/...

Daryll E. Ray, "Insurance being touted as core of 2007 Farm Bill," Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, October 7, 2005 #270, http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/27...

Daryll E. Ray,  "Focus on farm income variability leads to 'fire-insurance-like' policy alternatives," Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/32...

Daryll E. Ray, "The morphing of crop insurance," Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, October 2, 2009, http://www.agpolicy.org/weekco...

Daryll E. Ray, "ACR: Strong safety net when prices are high but snaps when prices fall," Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, November 2, 2007, http://www.agpolicy.org/weekco...

Dr. Steve Suppan, "Revenue-based Countercyclical Payments: U.S. Policy Disaster Relief?" Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, April 10, 2007, http://www.iatp.org/documents/...

IATP, "Revenue-based Countercyclicals: A Poor Substitute," Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, September 12, 2007, http://www.iatp.org/search/nod...

Daryll E. Ray & Harwood D. Schaffer, "Purely privatized crop insurance program: What does that mean?," Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, September 17, 2010, http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/52...

Daryll E. Ray & Harwood D. Schaffer, "Insurance is an effective within-year price safety net but fails across years," Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, October 14, 2011 #585, HTML:  http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/58... PDF:   http://agpolicy.org/weekpdf/58...

Daryll E. Ray & Harwood D. Schaffer, "Farm programs indirectly affect agribusiness sales-increasingly with direct cash subsides," Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/60...
March 16, 2012 #607

B. APAC Series:  Specific Revenue Insurance Proposals for the 2012 Farm Bill

Daryll E. Ray & Harwood D. Schaffer, "American Farm Bureau's farm bill proposal," October 7, 2011 #584, HTML:  http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/58... PDF:   http://agpolicy.org/weekpdf/58...

Daryll E. Ray & Harwood D. Schaffer, "NCGA proposes ACRE modifications for 2012 Farm Bill," October 21, 2011 #586, HTML:  http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/58... PDF:   http://agpolicy.org/weekpdf/58...

Daryll E. Ray & Harwood D. Schaffer, "American Soybean Association pitches its farm program proposal into the 2012 FB ring" October 28, 2011 #587, HTML:  http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/58... PDF:   http://agpolicy.org/weekpdf/58...

Daryll E. Ray & Harwood D. Schaffer, Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, November 11, 2011 #589, "Environmental Working Group proposes major changes in farm program," HTML:  http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/58... PDF:   http://agpolicy.org/weekpdf/58...

Daryll E. Ray & Harwood D. Schaffer, Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, November 18, 2011 #590, "Economist's suggestion: Revamp revenue insurance to reduce taxpayer-paid windfalls," HTML:  http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/59... PDF:   http://agpolicy.org/weekpdf/59...

Daryll E. Ray & Harwood D. Schaffer, Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, "FSA employees' association says: 'Let us do the crop insurance,'" February 17, 2012 #603 http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/60...

Daryll E. Ray & Harwood D. Schaffer, Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, "Crop insurers react to FSA employees' proposal," February 24, 2012 #604, http://agpolicy.org/weekcol/60...

Mike Becker, "Don't turn the clock back on who sells federal crop insurance," The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 5/3/12, http://thegazette.com/2012/05/...

Brad Wilson, Comments on Mike Becker's guest opinion, http://thegazette.com/2012/05/...

The Broader Context of Revenue Insurance and Farm Subsidies

Primer:  Farm Justice Proposals for the 2012 Farm Bill:  (http://www.zcommunications.org/primer-farm-justice-proposals-for-the-2012-farm-bill-by-brad-wilson)   Three key farm justice policy proposals that are needed in the 2012 Farm Bill, with online information to explain them and back them up.  These are the needed alternatives to revenue Insurance and other farm subsidies.

Fact Sheet:  Farm Justice Proposals for the 2012 Farm Bill, (http://www.zcommunications.org/fact-sheet-farm-justice-proposals-for-the-2012-farm-bill-by-brad-wilson) A brief explanation of the Primer above.

THIS IS CROSS POSTED TO http://www.zcommunications.org... WHERE A FEW LINKS HAVE BEEN ADDED.  I'LL UPDATE (edit) HERE WHEN I GET TIME.