Crop Insurance Today May 2013 - (Page 1)

TODAY PRESIDENT’SMESSAGE “Just the Facts, Ma’am, Just the Facts” 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 Tim Weber, Chairman Mike Day, Vice Chairman Jim Korin, Second Vice Chairman NCIS® MANAGEMENT Thomas P. Zacharias, President 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. Many of us may recall the television series “Dragnet” about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. While “Just the facts, ma’am” has come to be known as Dragnet’s catchphrase, Wikipedia tells us that Sargent Friday never actually said those words. The closest lines were “All we want are the facts, ma’am” and “All we know are the facts, ma’am.” Well, where is this taking us? As important as the facts were to Sergeant Friday in fighting crime, it is important that the Crop Insurance Industry provide a source of factual information to help better educate the public and body politic regarding crop insurance and its role in the agricultural safety net and the ongoing Farm Bill debate. Tom Zacharias, NCIS President To that end, NCIS recently released a detailed question-and-answer resource entitled “Crop Insurance: Just the Facts” (JTF) that lays out the facts about crop insurance and dispels some of the most common arguments critics make against the program. When it comes to why crop insurance is the risk management tool of the future, there is a great deal of misinformation and misrepresentation about the program. “JTF” is a vehicle that provides a balanced and reasoned perspective about the crop insurance industry. JTF is housed in a new tab on the Crop Insurance Keeps America Growing website page “About Crop Insurance.” It is continuously updated with new data or new questions and answers. JTF is a convenient and accurate resource for industry, farmers and consumers. Each question has a two-to-three paragraph answer and contains live hyperlinks to other resources and supporting materials if the reader would like to learn more about that particular topic. The resources include articles that have been printed in the Crop Insurance TODAY® publication or academic journals, farmer case studies and farmer testimonials, government websites, newspaper stories as well as other sources. The series covers important topics such as how crop insurance benefits the public, economics of the industry, the globalization of risk management, the benefits of crop insurance to producers, and other important topics and issues of interest to those of us involved in the crop insurance industry. Here are just a few examples of what you can find in “Just the Facts:” 1) How does crop insurance benefit the public? It is in the public interest to have a secure food supply and financially stable agriculture. There is a public benefit to a stable and secure rural economy and food production sector. That requires the presence of some form of publicly-funded safety net for farmers, who increasingly face variable weather patterns that challenge the food production system. The need for sound crop insurance is most easily demonstrated by the three-year drought, which began in 2011 and is extending into 2013. Crop insurance is the primary risk management tool farmers use to financially recover from natural disasters and volatile market fluctuations; pay their banks, fertilizer suppliers, Continued on page 32 CROPINSURANCE TODAY ® 1 http://www.ag-risk.org http://www.ag-risk.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crop Insurance Today May 2013

President's Message
2012 Year in Review
2013 Annual Convention Great Success!
Max Erickson Awarded Outstanding Service Award
Larry Heitman Pesented Leadership Award
Leadership of NCIS Regional/State Crop Insurance Committees
How Do Farmers Manage Risk When It Comes in So Many Forms?
Step 9-Monitoring and Controlling the Farm Business Q: How do I monitor progress over time?
Three Industry Stalwarts Presented Lifetime Achievement Awards
Cover Crops
Crop Insurance Plan Comparison
NCIS Retirements

Crop Insurance Today May 2013