by Eric Woods, News Director, Town Talk News
ewoods@www.towntalkradio.com
Kathy Henson, owner of the Monte and Kathy Henson Farms, was in Lubbock picking up some supplies as well as parts for their peanut combine when she got a bit of bad news.
The Hensons are hard at work and in the heat of harvest season and gearing up to grab their diversified crop list of peanuts, cotton, pumpkins, milo and wheat.
This year looked like it was going to shape up, but now Kathy Henson isn’t so sure after word quickly spread about the possibility of a proposed $3 billion in cuts over 10 years to federally subsidized crop insurance.
“We didn’t hear about it until it was too late,” said Kathy.
The news comes at a bad time for farmers who are busy in the fields harvesting their crops and can’t stop to make their voices heard.
Kathy said their farm is still trying to recover from the drought.
“I’m just shocked and that’s going to hurt us,” she said. “If we get this cut, it’s going to affect our bottom line. Most of the farmers have not been able to pay out because of drought.”
According to the Associated Press, the budget deal has angered top farm-state lawmakers who claim they weren’t notified of the move to make $3 billion in cuts over a ten-year time period to the crop insurance program.
Many crop insurance companies depend on federal subsidies, and the cuts made over 10 years may be detrimental to local farmers such as the Hensons.
The program costs $9 billion annually and farm-state legislators have worked to protect it since it is a safety net to those farmers who lose their crops.
Dan Jackson is the manager for the Meadow Farmers Co Op Gin, and he said if the proposed cuts are made, it could be detrimental to local area cotton farmers who may not be able to get loans needed to plant their cotton crops.
“It would be a huge blow,” said Jackson. “There are a lot of guys who are geared for cotton and if you take the protection, there will be a lot of land for sale or rent because some guys won’t be able to get financed at the bank.”
Jackson said local farmers have already been hurt by the $23 million worth of cuts to the Farm Bill and cutting away that crop insurance safety net could be a huge blow.
“It really stinks the way they did it,” said Jackson.
Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) is the Vice-Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, and he released the following statement today regarding the proposed $3 billion in cuts to crop insurance in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015:
“Agriculture is one of the major drivers of economic growth in the 19th District of Texas, and Washington has targeted our hardworking farmers and the Federal Crop Insurance Program far too many times to foot the bill for our nation’s spending-driven debt crisis. These proposed cuts are occurring not even two years after passage of the 2014 Farm Bill which already asked farmers to endure a $23 billion cut to farm programs. While this is unacceptable, it is of particular concern for cotton producers in my district as crop insurance is now the sole means of risk management available. Furthermore, the House Agriculture Committee was not even consulted during this process, and the Committee has overwhelmingly rejected similar proposals at every recent occasion—America’s farmers deserve better. Before moving forward, these devastating cuts to crop insurance should be immediately removed from the budget agreement. If these cuts are not removed, I will work with Chairman Conaway and my colleagues on the House Agriculture Committee to defeat the bill.”
