Tagged: farming

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Planet Money - Agriculture
10:18 am
Thu August 23, 2012

Why do taxpayers subsidize farmers' insurance?

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Credit Chana Joffe-Walt / NPR
Grandpa Traub — corn former and millionaire.
Credit Chana Joffe-Walt / NPR
Three generations of the Traub family are farmers.
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Originally published on Fri August 24, 2012 9:16 am

This summer's drought has hit more than half the states in the country. Crops are suffering, but farmers might not be. Most farmers have crop insurance.

U.S. taxpayers spend about $7 billion a year on crop insurance. It's our largest farm subsidy.

And this subsidy goes in part to farmers — who will tell you themselves they aren't so sure about the whole idea. "I have an aversion to it," says Jim Traub, a corn and bean farmer in Fairbury, Illinois. "But you're not going to turn it down."

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Politics
4:40 pm
Wed August 15, 2012

McCaskill blames Tea Party, Todd Akin for holding up drought aid

Credit Adam Allington/St. Louis Public Radio
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill at the Soulard Farmers Market.
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In the high-profile race for U.S. Senate in Missouri, incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill is seizing on this year’s drought to win support among rural voters. 

Speaking at the historic Soulard Farmers Market, Senator McCaskill laid in to her opponent in the November election—Republican Congressman Todd Akin—for his opposition the Senate version of the federal farm bill, which includes disaster assistance for farmers reeling from this year’s record drought.

Were it not for Republicans like Todd Akin, McCaskill says that relief would be on its way to farmers and ranchers.

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