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Harvest Public Media is a reporting collaboration focused on issues of food, fuel and field. Based at KCUR in Kansas City, Missouri, Harvest covers agriculture-related topics through a network of reporters and partner stations throughout the Midwest.

Environmental Group Supports Crop Insurance Cuts

Amy Mayer
/
Harvest Public Media

Congress is debating restoring $3 billion in recent cuts to the crop insurance program as part of a transportation bill. Harvest Public Media’s Amy Mayer says at least one environmental group thinks the cuts should stay.

The cuts are controversial because farmers depend on crop insurance in lean times and the current program grew out of painstaking farm bill negotiations. But the Environmental Working Group, a longtime critic of farm subsidies, says the cuts wouldn’t hurt farmers. Companies might have to tighten their belts.

Iowa State University economist Bruce Babcock did the math for EWG.

"You would end up with a more efficient delivery system, you would end up with about the same companies and the same number of agents, maybe a bit of consolidation," he says.

Babcock says he used figures from the industry itself to conclude crop insurance companies have fat they could trim.

Amy Mayer is a reporter based in Ames. She covers agriculture and is part of the Harvest Public Media collaboration. Amy worked as an independent producer for many years and also previously had stints as weekend news host and reporter at WFCR in Amherst, Massachusetts and as a reporter and host/producer of a weekly call-in health show at KUAC in Fairbanks, Alaska. Amy’s work has earned awards from SPJ, the Alaska Press Club and the Massachusetts/Rhode Island AP. Her stories have aired on NPR news programs such as Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition and on Only A Game, Marketplace and Living on Earth. She produced the 2011 documentary Peace Corps Voices, which aired in over 160 communities across the country and has written for The New York Times, Boston Globe, Real Simple and other print outlets. Amy served on the board of directors of the Association of Independents in Radio from 2008-2015.