Representatives Salinas and Blumenauer, Senator Booker Introduce Insuring Fairness for Family Farmers Act

Today, U.S. House Representatives Andrea Salinas (OR-06) and Earl Blumenauer (OR-03), along with U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), introduced the Insuring Fairness for Family Farmers Act, legislation that would reform current crop insurance policy to incentivize crop insurance agents to provide coverage to small and specialty crop farmers.

“The vast majority of farms in Oregon are small family farms, and crop insurance is one of their most valuable tools against bad weather, natural disasters, and volatile markets,” said Rep. Salinas. “Unfortunately, specialty crops have consistently lagged behind commodity crops in crop insurance coverage levels, and small farms are much less likely than large farms to have crop insurance, leaving them without a safety net when times get hard. In an ordinary year, 89% of the Farm Bill supports approximately 150,000 farms, while the other 2 million farms in the U.S. are forced to fight for that remaining 11%. Small family farms are too often left out of the Farm Bill process, despite being the backbone of Oregon agriculture. The Insuring Fairness for Family Farmers Act will help restore fairness to this process and ensure that these farms remain viable not just in the near term, but for years to come.” 

“Specialty crop farmers and small farmers are not able to take advantage of crop insurance if they are not given the opportunity to understand it and purchase it,” said Senator Booker. “My bill will fix the current inequities in federal subsidies, so that insurance agents are adequately compensated for selling policies to these producers. By ensuring access to crop insurance for all types of producers, we can promote a more resilient agriculture sector.”

“The Farm Bill has historically called fruits, veggies, nuts, and berries ‘specialty crops,’” said Rep. Blumenauer. “In Oregon, we call these crops ‘food.’ Farmers who grow them should be able to access adequate insurance coverage to guard against disaster. I appreciate Congresswoman Salinas’ partnership on this issue.”

“American farmers of all sizes deserve a strong, robust safety net that allows them to withstand tough years, keeping them on their land so they can feed their neighbors and their communities,” said Joe Van Wye, Policy and Outreach Director at Farm Action Fund. “Unfortunately, as it stands today, the federal crop insurance program incentivizes agents to provide the lion’s share of policies to the largest farms, often at the expense of fruit and vegetable growers who struggle to secure insurance. We applaud Representative Salinas, Representative Blumenauer, and Senator Booker, and urge passage of their ‘Insuring Fairness for Family Farmers Act’ so that federal crop insurance will work better for the family farmers and specialty crop growers who need it the most.”

The under-coverage of small farms and those that grow specialty crops is driven by current rules that incentivize crop insurance agents to write policies only for the largest farms. For each insurance policy that is sold, insurance companies and crop insurance agents are compensated with Administrative and Operating (A&O) subsidies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These subsidies are currently based on a percentage of the premium of the policy sold. Crop insurance policies for larger farms have larger premiums, making it more profitable for agents to seek out and write policies for these big farms. 

The Insuring Fairness for Family Farmers Act would revise how A&O subsidies are calculated and level the playing field for small farms. It would change agent compensation from being based on a percentage of the premium of the policy sold to being based on how complex the policy sold is. Under this framework, agents would receive compensation relative to how much effort selling or servicing the policy requires. The bill would also give bonuses to agents writing policies for farmers that have not purchased insurance before, small farmers, and farmers that sell certain types of specialty crops that have historically been under-covered. 

Oregon has a uniquely large percentage of small and specialty crop farms — and these farms are disadvantaged under the current system. According to 2019 data, 33.3% of all Oregon farms are small farms with less than 10 acres, compared to 13.4% of all US farms. Moreover, small farms with less than 10 acres are the fastest growing farm size in Oregon, and increased by 7.6% from 2012 compared to 2.8% nationally.

The Insuring Fairness for Family Farmers Act is supported by Farm Action Fund, Environmental Working Group, and National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

To read the full text of this legislation, click here.

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