“We need crop insurance from a food and national security perspective,” Bunger said. “If everyone has access to crop insurance with agents motivated to sell to them, you will not only see what we have today but a much more expanded support of what crop insurance can be.”
Told by an attendee that managing the expansion of livestock insurance has been difficult, Bunger said that there is a risk management fund in which companies can participate.
Developing the livestock program requires “a balance” between managing risk and keeping the policies affordable. she said, adding that maybe a higher level of subsidization is needed.
Bunger said that after attending an international crop insurance conference in Spain, she can now say, “we have the best crop insurance program in the world.”
Leaders in other countries are coming to USDA for advice on setting up crop insurance programs, she added.
Bunger praised now-retired and current RMA civil servants for doing the technical work that keeps the program working, but added, “We don’t get to rest on those laurels — don’t be led into a false sense of security.”
Bunger said she never asks farmers what they think about climate change, but rather whether the weather has changed over the past decade. They react by asking her if she is “an idiot,” and say that, of course, it’s been changing, she said.
“Farmers are looking for ways to mitigate the risks on their operations,” she concluded.
