Environmental Group Wants Changes to Crop Insurance Program

The Natural Resources Defense Council recently released a report that calls for changing the Federal Crop Insurance Program. The Council is particularly interested in finding ways to incentivize practices that reduce risk and lower the cost of taxpayer-subsidized payouts. As a first step, the report said the crop insurance program should include good stewardship or performance-based discounts that reward farmers who use good soil health practices with a higher premium subsidy or an adjusted insurance premium rate.

Rate adjustments could increase the adoption of regenerative practices that improve soil health and mitigate damage to crops, which would lower the cost of crop insurance over time. They recommend that Congress authorize long-term funding for a crop insurance savings program for soil health practices that are modeled on the Pandemic Cover Crop Program.

They also want the Risk Management Agency to adopt insurance premium formulas that account for risk mitigation of soil health management practices.

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