white shadow - 10/28/2015 21:29 I did not want to get into specifics of crop insurance or farm policy specifically, but the excellence of vailcats post has moved me to post some personal views/talking points that I believe are absolutes-----that any agriculturalist has to open his mind to and at least be open for discussion. 1. If you take the risk out of any business you will eventually take out the profit. People will use ( volume of sales/enterprise scope ) to generate the income rather than margin/acre. The industry will gravitate towards COP and not deviate. 2. Tying number one in with two. Crop insurance/farm bill has taken away growth opportunities for young people and growth opportunities for smaller/medium sized operations. The willingness of this demographic of producers to work for less and use labor is neutralized by the protection of crop insurance to get big fast. 3. Farm payments are directly linked to control. Linking conservation and crop insurance was just one play in the game to get total regulatory control. Hard to fight Washington's regulatory rules and control measures when your payments can be taken away from you and you are totally addicted to them. Plus, we are maybe coming to an era where these payments represent the only black ink you have in your spread sheet. 4. In 2013 (the last year for which comparable data were available), the average farm household income of $118,373 was about 63% higher than the average U.S. household income of $72,641. This fact is not going to win us support with the general public on any regulatory issue and even food policy. This is a black eye that won't heal. We as producers were loved when we wore straw hats and bib overhauls----today with college degrees, auto steer and big boy toys-----not so much. Now add the wealth discussion of land and assets and we have an image problem. 5. I try to be an advocate for agriculture ( grain and livestock ) and have been in numerous discussions/arguments on farm policy, environmental policy, animal husbandry and regulatory aggressiveness that would have very bad consequences. Every time you make your point decisively and they know they have LOST the argument do to the FACTS----they throw agricultural subsidies in your face----every time, on every issue. They play the welfare card every time on every issue. We will have a very hard time winning some of the battles that we will face in the future as people who simply VOTE FOR A LIVING control the government and the regulatory policy. 6. We in agriculture underestimate the willingness of the socialist left-----they are totally willing to destroy an entire industry to achieve their goals. I was in Pierre (State Capitol ) hearing testimony on the lumber industry wanting to log pine beetle infested areas of the Black Hills National Forest. One of the key points the lumber industry made, was by harvesting these insect damaged trees they would be vastly improving the fire danger dead trees pose to the forest. I will NEVER forget the testimony rebuttal from the Sierra Club-----"if we have to burn the forest down to remove man and the lumber industry from the forest, we are willing to take that step" 7. Financial stability, good equity and good debt structure still exists in agriculture. Now is the time to say good-bye to subsidies. Not being on welfare will give us some bullets to use in the future on issues that will affect our bottom line much more severally than loosing Agricultural subsidies. Reach deep and have the courage to call your congressional delegation and tell them to continue the gutting of subsidies. 8. We are approaching the time period we need the respect of the public more than the publics tax dollars. 9. We will continue to be relentlessly taxed as long as we receive tax dollars back. 10. Lets be the first industry to stand up and demand a fiscally responsible government and you can start by applying our subsidies to the national debt.