Congressional watchdog: Stop paying big farmers’ crop insurance

New report spells out how Congress could drop subsidies for top producers and save millions in taxpayer dollars

DECEMBER 7, 2023 — 11:09AM

By Christopher Vondracek Star Tribune

Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union and a farmer in Renville County, said his membership also relies on federally subsidized crop insurance to pencil out operations on their farms.

“We definitely support crop insurance, no doubt,” Wertish said. “There’s a lot of smaller farmers who wouldn’t be able to farm without it.”

Still, Wertish said his members are open to reform. He argued that the lack of an income cap — as USDA imposes on some other entitlement programs — allows some of the wealthiest farmers to stockpile funds that, in turn, make them a more formidable foe to purchase land at the auction block, often gobbling up tracts against lower-income farmers.

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