10-11 NWR Farm Bill and Weather

This is your Northwest report for Tuesday, October 11, I'm David Sparks and What with increasingly wild weather swings throughout the country, Safety net provisions and the next farm bill were very much on the mind of Mike Strain, President of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. "When you look at the farm bill, the discussion was that they would put the majority of the safety net provisions would be included in the crop insurance. First of all, you have to have a crop where you can get insurance but also the other provisions, if you look at the livestock indemnity program for instance, $20 million for the entire United States for an entire year. If you look at the monies that were funded in the emergency conservation program and if you look at ELAP and all these other programs, they are very very limited. So we passed the farm bill with safety net provisions, but we didn't adequately fund them for a major disaster. And a major disaster that affects multiple states or large areas within a state. If you look at crop insurance, like one of our rice farmers lost 60%. Well if he had 2000 acres, and he had already harvested 60% he still had 800 acres to go and he had a total loss on the other 800 acres than his payment is zero. So when you look now where the margins are and you look at where commodity prices are and when you have a major disaster right at harvest time, you wouldn't insure your home the way you ensure your crops. You would never have 60% coverage on your home. But you also have to look at the cost benefit ratio, for crop insurance so when you say to yourself can I make a profit or can I at least cover my variable costs and some of my fixed costs then I can afford crop insurance at this or that level. So there are many crops that are not insured and when you go in and say our fruit and vegetable farmers not only will I still crops but they lost their topsoil.

Elsewhere, support for Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump appears to be fading fast, even amongst members of his own party. Nearly two dozen Washington State Republican delegates are calling on Trump to leave the presidential race over crude, sexual comments he made in 2005. And even in the reddest of states, Idaho, the Idaho Statesman had a front page head line saying "Idaho viewers pan Trump response to video.