Crop Insurance Today Third Quarter 2020 - 1

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"For the Want of a Nail"
(Third in a Four-Part Series)
Tom Zacharias, NCIS President

The entire industry, including
both the public and private
sectors, have invested a great
deal of time, hard work, and
commitment to position crop
insurance as the centerpiece
of the farm safety net.

This is the third "post" in a four-part series titled "For the Want of a Nail." As has been our custom, we begin with the words of the proverb, as
converted to song by Todd Rundgren. Interested
readers can also find the "proverb of the nail" in
other outlets or venues, including: Ben Franklin
(Poor Richard's Almanac, 1758); Mary Robinette
Kowal (Asimov's Science Fiction, September
2010); and John Gower (first English version, late
14th century).

"The Want of a Nail"
"... For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of the battle the war was lost.
For want of the war the kingdom was lost"
For the third quarter edition of TODAY®
magazine it seems appropriate to focus on a
particular lyric, "...the message was lost..."
As we live out our lives under the pervasive and apparently unrelenting cloud of the
COVID-19 pandemic we are facing mixed messages about how to move forward as a country
in the midst of new scientific understanding and
changing information. There are lots of messages
and lots folks carrying these messages.
Well, we can only control what we can control,

right? Our world is one of crop insurance. And the
world of crop insurance has expanded remarkably
since the early days of the 1980s. Perhaps more
relevant is the modern era of crop insurance that
began with the passage of the Crop Insurance Reform Act of 1994, which followed in the wake of
the devastating floods of 1993. In 1995, the first
year of implementation of the 1994 Act, the Federal crop insurance program protected 220 million acres with $24 billion in liability protection.
Fast forward 25 years to 2019 and the program has
grown significantly, with more than 380 million
acres insured and $110 billion in liability protection. The entire industry, including both the public and private sectors, have invested a great deal
of time, hard work, and commitment to position
crop insurance as the centerpiece of the farm safety net. Farmers across the country depend on crop
insurance to be there when disaster strikes. Not
to make them whole, but to allow them to plant a
crop again next year.
So, what is the message here? Many years ago
(and you may remember this story from an earlier president's message), I was running an errand
with my oldest granddaughter when from her car
seat came the question "...what is it you do?" I remember thinking through all of the things our
association and industry deals with on a daily
basis and all of the ways I could try and explain
Continued on page 32

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Crop Insurance Today Third Quarter 2020

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