Crop Insurance Today February 2013 - (Page 1)
TODAY PRESIDENT’SMESSAGE
Primum Non
Nocere-Redux
Laurie Langstraat, Editor
TODAY IS PROVIDED AS A SERVICE OF
NATIONAL CROP INSURANCE SERVICES®
TO EDUCATE READERS ABOUT THE RISK
MANAGEMENT TOOLS PRODUCERS USE
TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM
THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH
PRODUCTION AGRICULTURE.
TODAY is published quarterly–February, May,
August, and November by
National Crop Insurance Services
8900 Indian Creek Parkway, Suite 600
Overland Park, Kansas 66210
www.ag-risk.org
If you move, or if your address is incorrect,
please send old address label clipped from recent issue
along with your new or corrected address to
Laurie Langstraat, Editor, at the above address.
NCIS® EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Steve Rutledge, Chairman
Ted Etheredge, Vice Chairman
Tim Weber, Second Vice Chairman
NCIS® MANAGEMENT
Thomas P. Zacharias, President
P. John Owen, General Counsel
Charles Lee, General Counsel
James M. Crist, CFO/COO
Frank Schnapp, Senior Vice President
Mike Sieben, Senior Vice President
Creative Layout and Design
by Graphic Arts of Topeka, Inc., Kansas
Printed on recycled paper.
This will be the first issue of TODAYTM magazine
for 2013 and it will be distributed at our Industry Annual Convention in February. So, some form of New
Year’s Resolution or “back to the basics” theme seems
in order.
Most of us start the New Year with diet and/or exercise regimens, combined with new reading assignments, learning French, or maybe to spend more
quality time with the “Fam” or attempting to shave a
few strokes off our golf games.
Well, what about crop insurance? What theme
should we consider for 2013? Back to the Basics? In November of 2011, more than a year ago, I penned a piece
here entitled “Primum, Non Nocere.” Primum Non
Tom Zacharias, NCIS President
Nocere is a Latin term simply meaning “first, do no
harm” or “the first thing is to do no harm”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primum_non_nocere). Quoting from Wikipedia, “given an existing problem, it may be better not to do something, or even to do nothing, than to risk causing more
harm than good.” The expression is also considered to be a fundamental axiom of medical ethics.
Redux also comes from the Latin “reducere” that is, returning or to lead back.
In preparing for the year we face in 2013 and reflecting upon the past two years in particular, we
should “return” to our “DO NO HARM” mantra.
Why would we begin the conversation here? Well, 2013 begins with a great deal of extreme uncertainty. Although the results of the 2012 election are known, it is not clear how our elected leaders will govern or where agriculture sits on their priority list, other than serving as a convenient
budget target.
Meanwhile, the January Drought Monitor indicates that much of the continental United States
is categorized as being in “moderate” drought (D1) to “exceptional” drought (D4), and persistent
drought is currently forecast through the end of March (January 8, 2013 Weekly Weather and Crop
Bulletin). These conditions put further strain on a crop insurance infrastructure that has faced backto-back years of disaster and repeated funding reductions.
Now turn our attention to the prospects for completion of the Farm Bill. Are you feeling any degree of uncertainty here?
Hard Times Mean Hard Choices
As the Farm Bill discussion intensifies and it becomes clear that agriculture will likely be called
upon once again to make budget sacrifices, what should the priority be in the new legislation?
In economics (the little I recall), resources should be allocated first to those assets, enterprises,
or projects that yield the highest return. In agriculture’s case, there are no programs that have yielded
a higher return than crop insurance, which helped farmers across the U.S. cope with the historic
droughts the past two years. Moreover, when resources are scarce (and they are and will be more so
in the future), the last programs to be funded should be those that are untested and have no proven
Continued on page 38
CROPINSURANCE TODAY
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crop Insurance Today February 2013
Primum Non Nocere-Redux
Common Land Unit Acreage Reporting Plan
A Challenging 2012 for NCIS & the Crop Insurance Industry
NCIS Participates in NAFB "Trade Talk"
The Value of Crop Insurance Case Study
Step 8 -- Managing Constraints
Insurable Crops: Locations & Plans
Crop Insurance Today February 2013
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