Changing crop insurance program pushes taxpayer bill
The way farmers use crop insurance has fundamentally changed — and that’s been costly for taxpayers.
The way farmers use crop insurance has fundamentally changed — and that’s been costly for taxpayers.
Thanks to a drop in market volatility and grain prices, farmers may pay up to 10 percent less this year for crop insurance.
The average yearly amount of taxpayer money funding the highly subsidized federal crop insurance program has more than doubled in just over a decade. From 2003 through 2007, the government spent an average of $3.4 billion per year on crop insurance, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.